Tales of a Demon
by SynneFox
Summary: Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey, but his Master often made it hard to tell, just who exactly was the prey between the two of them? [Written outside chronological order; follow closely or it won't make sense.]
1. 001: The Demon is more than Indifferent

Tale 001

'The Demon is more than Indifferent'

Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey.

His human, the fragile boy Ciel Phantomhive, was a challenge. Had been since the tender age of ten. And for as delicate and breakable his exterior was, his insides reminded Sebastian of layers upon layers of silk; invincible, irresistible to the touch, and something to become lost in. Only recently has that last part begun to really make sense.

His Master challenged him in a way no other prey had ever done.

When Sebastian poked too much on his outsides the boy would slide one cobalt blue eye away from him, fix his face into indifference, and retreat. Or as Sebastian had taken to calling it;

He would _hide_.

For the most part, it had never really bothered the butler before; especially when his imperious little lord was younger. But after that fateful day in Paris, the marked moment of abandonment, his Master had never quite looked at him the same. Always, there was some measure of detachment. After the Ash confrontation, Ciel hadn't brought it up again, but Sebastian knew; his Master would never forgive him for it. The punishment was unstated and yet immovable. Ciel trusted him with everything he physically could, but no longer did Ciel trust Sebastian with anything intangible. It was a rare moment when the demon cursed himself for his actions but, that was one of them.

Now, at the ripe age of fourteen, things were changing; not within Ciel. No. Within Sebastian.

His tolerance for those moments when Ciel would simply stare at him, just to cast his gaze elsewhere and _hide_ away in his mind: those moments when Ciel would pose Sebastian with a question then never really listen for the answer: those moments when Ciel would purposefully confront his enemies rather than calling for his butler, heedless of his own death or demise, almost as if he were _trying_ to spill the demon's dinner on the street…!

It was taking all the ancient creature had to hold his peace. Never before had he had trouble of bringing a human's attention to himself. Never before had he known the cold impotency of being _ignored_! His kind were not ignored! They were sensual, alluring, and dangerous creatures that evoked lust, fear, envy, longing, selfishness, evil, greed, sometimes singularly, sometimes all together. They were a threat to all creatures and treated either with wary avoidance or wary respect, but they were always acknowledged. When he had signed that contract, the boy had _needed_ him. NEEDED Sebastian to keep him safe, to rebuild his life, to supplement a custodial relationship, to guide him, to exact his revenge. And all the while Sebastian had fed off of the attention as his kind were wont to do. It was the nature of the contract. No demon would ever sign a contract on the premise of being some decorative statue, not to be interacted with, not to be the apex of the contractor's emotions and attentions!

Sebastian took a silent, deep breath in the shadow of the carriage. One of the best kept secrets Sebastian had, was that his emotions were as volatile as his face was impassive. Such was the nature of demons; born in the lake of fire from a marriage of explosive malignancy. He found himself gazing once again on the averted face of his Master while they rode back from London.

"Is something the matter?" Ciel lilted, while continuing to stare at the blue-black sky. His voice had subtle changes in its adolescence yet remained a refined, British tenor of youth.

Sebastian's garnet eyes narrowed. "Are you asking simply to create sound or do you truly wish to know the answer to your question?"

For the first time since leaving the city, Ciel turned to face his butler. He raised a brow. "You've been in an uncommonly sour mood today; pray tell, what has you in such a fix?"

Sebastian felt it, that slight tingle that came from having his alluringly complex human's attention. He sat back against his seat. "Is it really myself that has been in a mood, Young Master?"

Ciel leaned his face against his raised fist and crossed his legs. "I don't know what you mean, Sebastian. I feel the same as I always do. Are you insinuating that I've been mistreating you?"

Sebastian wondered, with suspicion, if his little human was more knowledgeable on the inner workings of demons than he let on. The butler bowed from the waist. "Of course not, My Lord."

And just like that, Ciel let the subject go, back to facing the window.

And just like that, Sebastian felt his ire building.


	2. 002: Secrets are kept from the Demon

Tale 002

'Secrets are kept from the Demon'

There once was a night Sebastian was confused.

Now, the demon wasn't confused very often in his long life; so this night was one to remember.

Some weeks prior to the night in question, a nearly fourteen-year-old Ciel Phantomhive had a very specific order for his butler. "Sebastian, take this parcel to the Undertaker immediately. Under no circumstances are you to make any attempts or inquiries to discover its contents. That is an order. Do you understand?"

Sebastian, thoroughly suspicious, had simply raised a brow, placed a hand over his beating heart, bowed at the waist and replied. "Yes, my Lord."

Ciel nodded. "Once you have seen the parcel safely delivered, you are to return immediately. Do not wait for a reply." With that Ciel had handed over a rather plump, tweed envelope and dismissed his butler.

Some weeks later they were in London proper, when Ciel announced they would make a stop to Undertaker's. Upon entering, the cackling Shinigami seemed to need no more payment than the earl showing his face. "Ooooh~! Dear Earl, I hadn't thought to see ya for some weeks yet! Been wanting to know of yer request, I take it?"

Ciel gave a huff. "Yes, but first," Here he turned to his butler, and it was in these next moments that Sebastian would become both amused, confused, and suspicious. "Sebastian, I order you to sit there." The earl pointed to a conveniently placed, dusty old chair sitting lonely in a corner. "You are not to see, hear or understand anything until I come physically retrieve you. Do you understand?"

Amidst the raucous caterwauling of the Undertaker, Sebastian had stared at his Master. His naturally slender garnet eyes wide with slight disbelief and heavy surprise. "Young Master…?" Was all he was able to get out.

An imperious, slate-blue brow rose. Ciel tilted his head and questioned, "Is this order something you are not capable of, Sebastian?"

The demon had, predictably, bristled at the challenge to his aesthetics and straightened his back. His Master was an alluringly sly creature, and though his need to know everything about his Master was enough that this was likely going to drive him crazy, Sebastian would comply. So, the butler sat in the corner and stared straight down at the gloved hands in his lap, his mind far within itself so as not to accidently disobey his Master's wishes. It was likely that Ciel realized that if he didn't want Sebastian to know something, the only thing that could stop Sebastian was Sebastian, and had decided to use the butler against himself. Unbidden a smirk settled firmly on his lips. Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey.

Some months later, during the second month of Ciel's fourteenth year, a package was delivered to the Phantomhive country estate. It was in plain packaging, about the length of Sebastian's arm, from shoulder to fingertip. The sender was unmarked. Sebastian took it to his Master in the study at once. Ciel had simply smirked and ordered the package be carefully opened. Once achieved the Phantomhive stood and removed the item inside.

It was a glossy, black lacquered cane with some baroque stylings toward the head. There was a sterling silver, meticulously detailed cuff just under the skulled head. And though he didn't touch it himself, Sebastian could tell it was heavier than his Master had expected. "Young Master?" Sebastian questioned.

Ciel turned to his butler. "This is what I requested from the Undertaker." He went back to inspecting his cane. "I had been thinking about it for some time. Apparently he doesn't often make things that are not coffins, but he owed me a favor." Ciel hummed in delight as he turned the shiny thing this way and that. "Now," he turned back to his butler." You are not to put one grubby demon paw on my cane unless specifically asked. Is that understood?"

Sebastian, more insulted at the insinuation that he had either 'grubby' or 'paw', stared with a softly perplexed expression. "I understand, my Lord. But was this what all the secrecy was about?"

"Oh, you mean those orders I gave you?" Sebastian nodded one firm nod. Ciel gazed at his butler a moment before a superior smirk that smacked of ulterior motives, glazed over his cherubic face. "I suppose." He waved a hand, going back to his desk. "Now, I'm sure you are busy with other chores, yes?"

Sebastian, whom was both darkly amused and frustratingly irritated, simply narrowed his eyes, smirked, and bowed.

"Of course, young Master."

It wouldn't be for some time that Sebastian would ever find out the true mystery behind that cane.


	3. 003: The Demon's Master goes Mad

Tale 003

'The Demon's Master goes Mad'

It was a cold and blustering night in the English country side.

The Master of the manor was to be turning fourteen in just some hours and the servants, few as there were, were excited for him. Sebastian wasn't sure, but it seemed that the humans were subconsciously certain that their little tyrant wouldn't live to see true adolescence. The butler sighed as he readied dinner on a cart to transport to the Master's study.

Sebastian was a little startled to not find his contractor where he left him but a few hours ago; and annoyed he had to search for him, carting dinner around, at that. No matter, even in a manor as grand as the Phantomhive's, there were no hiding spots from a hellion butler. So Sebastian searched in the Master's bedroom, billiard room, alternative studies and libraries. Then in guest bedrooms, pantries, basement alcoves and storage compartments. Minute by minute with no Ciel being found, even Sebastian began to worry.

His contract with Ciel provided him with a failsafe should Ciel ever try to escape him, but if Ciel _wasn't_ trying to escape, the seal on his eye would do nothing to alert Sebastian. It was Sebastian's responsibility to keep track of his own meal and to keep it safe. So when the butler was certain he had combed the entire manor from top to bottom to no avail, he became justifiably worried. It was impossible that his little Lord somehow managed to get himself kidnapped again, certainly in this weather!

With that Sebastian ventured out of the front door. The wind was a frigid, brutal, awe-inspiring maelstrom. Sebastian was scarcely able to see a few meters before him when usually he could see by the leagues. The howling wind made it hard to hear anything and the deluge of fluffy white water kept his nose from picking up anything significant. Truly the worst weather to track anyone or anything in.

Sebastian reminded himself that a demon of his caliber _did not panic_.

He assuaged himself with the idea that Ciel was at least safe; even though Sebastian couldn't track him through the seal unprovoked, Ciel was able to call to Sebastian. His Lord never wasted any time demanding his demon come and rescue him from inconvenient situations. The fact that his seal was silent now, was puzzling, perhaps his Young Master was knocked unconscious? Still, the butler decided to attempt to track him. He began circling the manor, intently using all his senses to find some trace of where his wayward Master may have gone.

Sebastian was near the back when he saw them. Almost covered in the pounds of falling snow were divots as if they had once been foot prints. The butler pursued immediately. Carefully, and quietly Sebastian followed them into the garden, through the maze and then out into the open field that preceded the forest on the southern-most part of Phantomhive property.

Then there was nothing. No foot prints, no bent foliage, no clues. Nothing. The demon snarled out of frustration and swung round, eyes blazing.

He almost missed him.

Ciel sat on a stone bench. He wore no protective outside wear. In fact, he only had on a waistcoat over his button down blouse, and simple trousers and shoes. His hair was tossed about, nearly white so full of snow it was. He was without his eye patch and also covered in snow. He sat transfixed, seemingly, mindlessly staring at the clear bright moon.

Sebastian was alight with such shock he briefly wondered if he was able to experience heart failure. Quick on the heels of his shock was anger. Surely this was Ciel attempting to defy him, attempting to rob Sebastian of his meal by dying prematurely. It would certainly explain why there was no calling upon his seal.

"Young Master." Sebastian called, appearing right next to the boy. His voice was full of more disapproval than normal. "Forgive my forwardness, but this is absurd. I really must object to such behavior; you shall surely catch a severe flu. We can only hope I will be able to keep you from death's door. Now, let us go inside." He made to pick up his unresponsive Master.

"I'm not ready to go in, Sebastian." The boy's voice was firm and sober, despite the ridiculous conditions he was in. Slowly twin mesmerizing eyes lit upon the demon. "You are angry at me?" Was asked with an impassive face.

The demon narrowed his gaze. "It seems to me that lately the Master seeks to undermine our contract."

The pretty face tilted to the side with innocence that Sebastian wasn't completely suspicious of. "Is that so?"

"Well, what exactly would you call this? Here you are, frail even for a human, out in weather that would kill a hardened solider." Sebastian gestured dramatically to their environment. "Now, say you that your purpose is not to flee from your end of the bargain?" He was certainly being un-butler-ly, but his Master's behavior simply had to be addressed.

"Hmm," Ciel went back to gazing at the moon and Sebastian had to physically restrain himself. "No. No I am not fleeing you. I came out here to think away from your presence and then it began to storm. I just couldn't be bothered to move. It is quite beautiful, nature's ferocity."

Sebastian looked around and supposed he could see the appeal. He also decided to table the idea of Ciel needing to leave the manor altogether to 'think' away from his presence. "Very well Young Master, you have seen nature's beauty. Now, let us return to shelter so that I may do damage control with your easily defeated immune system." He snarkily intoned, a hand gestured to sweep Ciel up.

"I stated I was not ready to leave, demon."

Sebastian froze. A fine tremble worked his way up his inhuman frame and the demon wondered; had there ever been another contractor that had given him such a hard time? "Young Master," He began again, keeping his voice to a reasonable tone. "You say again, that you are not in these elements to pursue death? I can hear your heart slowing. You have been out in this weather for longer than your body can withstand. Surely you feel pain?" Sebastian attempted to reason with his human.

Ciel slowly lifted a snow covered hand to look upon his own blue-tinted fingers. "Aye, I feel pain." He whispered softly. "It hurts, Sebastian. It hurts so bad to be so cold." He turned his mismatched gaze onto his butler. "Then again, it hurts just as well to be so hot. I would know." He let his arm fall limply back to his side, banging against the snow-covered stone bench. The sound made Sebastian flinch. "Tis, what I have been thinking about, demon." Ciel paused and did not speak again.

Sebastian was growing antsy. His little Lord's eyelids were drooping, his heart was slowing. He really did need to get Ciel inside the manor. "My Lord? What was it you have been thinking?" He prompted. Perhaps if Ciel could just get out whatever was weighing on him so heavily, Sebastian could be done with this entire situation.

"I've been thinking that I don't much care." Ciel finished in his soft, proper British lilt.

"Pardon?' the demon, tilted his head complexed. "About what, do you not care?"

Ciel shrugged and looked back toward his butler. "Not about anything anymore. Not about revenge, not about marriage, not about whether you get your meal, not about whether I live or die. I simply no longer care. What good has caring done for me? Done for any human? We are worrisome creatures, constantly astressed about one thing or the other and in the grand scheme it matters not. You take a life, you give a life, you are wretched, you are noble. Even for those of us who say their only purpose is to give memories, those whom you seek to remember you, are also just as worthless so what is the point? Our lives are over in the fraction of a blink. What are we even here for? Answer me that demon."

Sebastian stared back at his charge, at a loss for what to say. His master's question was not the first time the butler had heard similar inquiries. In fact, Sebastian himself had pondered this fact from time to time. However, what worried the demon now, was that answering wrong could push his little Lord in the wrong direction.

"You have no answer for me." Ciel sighed. "Tell me Sebastian, would my soul be out of your reach should I die right now?"

Again the butler's eyes narrowed. "Technically no. Since your body has a mark of the beast, if you die outside of contracted parameters, your soul is free game to any who encounter it once it leaves your body. I would simply have to wait and then I could take it."

Ciel nodded in a satisfied way. "Then what exactly has you so upset?"

Sebastian could not answer. Ciel took a shuddering breath that may have been a laugh.

"Why not just end it now? I am tired. I have lived barely fourteen years and I am tired, Sebastian. I could not fathom having a lifespan of a demon. Would it not be better for you to simply let me die here? Aren't you hungry?"

The elder huffed. "My Lord, I have been hungry for a great while and this is not even the hungriest I've been. It would not please me to have our contract end in such a disgraceful manner." The younger chuckled and then coughed wretchedly. Sebastian fretted. "My Lord this is preposterous! Come, let us discuss this inside; I implore you!"

"Even still, it is interesting."

"You are mad."

"That may be so, but what else is there to be, dear Sebas-"

"HUMAN!" Sebastian suddenly exclaimed startling the both of them. His eyes flashed, his teeth sharpened and his entire demeanor became severe and dark. "You will cease this madness! Return to the manor."

Ciel stared at his butler, not a hint of fear about him. Finally the snarky little thing smirked. "Would you be sad if I died?"

Sebastian took a chance. He placed a hand over his beating heart, bowed at the waist and said simply. "Yes."

There was silence and then finally. "Okay." Sebastian rose and held out his hand. Ciel allowed his butler to take him inside.

Sebastian battled day and night for nearly a week to nurse his Master back to health.

It would not be the end of the madness he was to witness.


	4. 004: The Demon's Master becomes Alive

Tale 004

'The Demon's Master becomes Alive'

His Master's spirits seemed to perk up with the arrival of his strange new toy; the mysterious cane.

The month of March saw a new burst of vigor spark the melancholy and slightly insane air that had pervaded his poor, pretty little Lord. The boy seemed obsessed with learning new tricks with the cane. It took him a few weeks to fully adjust to the weight and then he was scarcely seen without twirling it about over his wrist and fingers. By the summer he had already become quite adept.

Also, to the demon's delight, was his anew concentration in fencing and swordsmanship.

He said, "I shall never be the strongest Sebastian, this I know. So I shall endeavor to be the fastest. To this end, I employ you and you had better teach me well."

And so began a time of great fun for the butler. His charge welcomed a more rigorous change in schedule. Upon waking Sebastian had Ciel run an obstacle course that focused more on dexterity and balance than stamina. Then he bathed his Lord and fed him well. Then there were studies and work and just after elevenses had digested, it was a two hour training block. The first hour was focused on fencing only, followed by a short water break.

The second hour focused on reflexes. This time was especially enjoyable for the hellion for he had devised a game to help his human, and the Master had given his permission. Sebastian bid that his charge change into fitted fencing trousers, long, supple boots and white leather, elbow length gloves. No shirt. No eye patch. Sebastian himself would be garbed in regular fencing attire but his bare hands would be coated in red paint. The object of the game was to have his Lord block Sebastian before he could touch his skin. He could review his progress by the amount of paint adoring his skin versus his gloves. Sebastian would begin by moving at a regular human's speed and before the hour was up, would be using preternatural speeds.

To Ciel, it wasn't good enough to be able to defend himself against humans. In fact, humans were rarely the ones he worried about anymore.

The game was the demon's favorite for a variety of different reasons. In the beginning weeks, his impatient and determined Young Master would get so frustrated with his lack of progress that his chest would heave and he would blush from anger. It amused the demon greatly. Later, toward the summer, when his charge was evolving by leaps and bounds, his heaving chest, covered in red and sweat and the very slightest of definitions on his pretty slender body, amused the demon differently.

His Master Ciel was quite proficient in fending off human-speed advancements. His weakness was of those things at preternatural speeds. For most people, they would assume their limits were of being human and secede any such notion of exceeding them. But his Master was not like most people.

"I should say, the problem lies in familiarizing myself. What say you, demon?"

Sebastian agreed.

So the game was extended throughout the day. At random points in time, Sebastian would strike, clapping his hands loudly right in his Master's face. Always quicker than Ciel could ever hope to counter. The key was to work on his reflexes. Points were given if he didn't spill his tea or food. Even more points were given if he managed to follow with his eyes or recoil promptly. They both wondered at the interspersed and fateful moments where Ciel would manage to slap Sebastian's hand away just in time.

His Lord was always a ball of glowing pride after those moments and he would praise his butler for his excellent tutorship.

Sebastian reveled in it.

Still the boy could hardly be found without playing with his cane; twirling it this way and that. Sebastian wondered at it as well, but ultimately left it alone. He was not allowed to touch it. It wouldn't be until Autumn when Sebastian would discover the connection between that cane and his Master's behavior. None-the-less:

Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey.


	5. 005: The Demon is given Grief

**Tale 005**

 **' The Demon is given Grief '**

Sometime during a hot, late Summer night, his Master woke up in a sweat, and pulled on the seal.

Now, the butler had learned that just because there was a tug on his seal, it did not mean that his Master was calling for him. Still the particular….quality of this tug was intriguing. The demon had previously been in his most natural form, reclined on the bed in his sparse room, in a facsimile of sleep. It was a luxury he often indulged in, in the time contracted to his Master Phantomhive.

Without bothering to change into his human guise, Sebastian melted through the shadows of the manor until he phased half through a dark corner of his Master's bed chamber. There his charge was sitting up in his bed, one knee raised and his pretty little head pressed against it. Ciel had one hand raised to his marked eye and his chest heaved with his stress.

The room reeked of the mouth-watering scent of his soul, pheromones, and sweat.

Sebastian watched his unmoving Master for some minutes before the boy finally spoke. "I know you are there, Sebastian. I can always feel when your hunger is aimed at me. Will you come out, or should I say so as an order?"

The demon flinched further into the shadows and bit his lip in indecision. It was very likely that his sly little Master was bluffing and Sebastian stepping forward now would validate the arrogant little human. Should Ciel order him to come, he could very well enter through the door, as normal. But if he was asked directly, he would not be able to lie, so what was the point? He had been caught red handed; damn his perceptive little Lord. The demon oscillated in indecision.

Ciel sighed. "Suit yourself." He laid back down in dismissal of the matter and _that_ Sebastian could not bear.

The demon stepped fully into the room through the wall, and slipped into his human skin. "Well now, my Master is adept at getting what he wants." He lilted to his little human.

Ciel did not deign to turn back round. "I'm sure I don't know what you are on about Sebastian. Do you make it a habit of spying on your Master?"

"No, My Lord. I was called."

Ciel sat up with flourish and a glare. "I certainly don't remember speaking your name, demon."

Sebastian bowed with put upon chastisement. "No, my Lord. You did not speak my name, but you did call me none-the-less." Sebastian seeing his, now angry, little Master opening his mouth to, no doubt, further denigrate his servant, interrupted him. "I came only because the Master seemed greatly disturbed in his sleep. You have not had a night terror in some time and I thought it unusual."

Ciel was quiet while he stared suspiciously at his butler. Finally his face smoothed out and he looked away. "It was not a night terror…..or rather, not the kind I have familiarity with."

"My Lord?" His servant enquired.

Ciel huffed and ran a hand through his adorably mussed tresses. "And so my hellish protector came right away to soothe my sleep? Is that it, Sebastian?"

The demon grinned. "My Lord has it exactly."

This time it was Ciel's turn to grin. "Very well Sebastian, you may assist me this night."

The butler bowed once more. "As my Lord wishes. What is your command?"

"Disrobe."

Sebastian blinked at the finely woven carpet in surprise. He had not expected such a response from his most proper Master Phantomhive. "My Lord?" He looked up to gauge Ciel's face.

"You will make me repeat myself?" The arrogant thing had the nerve to raise a haughty brow.

Sebastian blanked his face, though his mind continued to whirl. "Of course not. Right away." With efficiency, he disrobed, folding his clothes neatly and stacking them in an arm chair by the window. By no means was the demon modest. No. What he was, was wary of the industrious mind inside his most troublesome contractor yet. And that was saying much, since Sebastian had serviced thousands of humans.

"Hmm." Ciel looked him over, still in the very same spot in his comfortable bed. "Come closer, I wish to see better." Sebastian approached until he was directly next to the mattress. He stood still while the boy looked him over. "Turn around." Was his next instruction.

Sebastian was surprised to find the small hairs on his disguised body stood on end with a slight hesitation in his muscles. It was imperceptible to a human but it was there. Sebastian blinked and attempted to assess himself. Somewhere inside of him, something treated Ciel Phantomhive with a wariness only attributed to potential threats. Yet, what could such a fragile creature such as his Master possibly accomplish?

Still, turning your back on a threat was worse than stupid. Sebastian attempted to forcibly relax the tension building in his shoulders. "My Lord?"

"You may turn back around." Sebastian gratefully complied. "Tell me something; what is the worst thing a contractor has ever commanded of you?"

Sebastian furrowed his brow and thought through the many years he had experienced with his contracted humans. "I believe my Master's ideas of bad or good, differ greatly from my own." When Ciel failed to respond the demon sighed and continued. "Well then, let's see. I do believe about some couple hundred years ago in the throes of the Spanish Inquisition, my contractor at the time bade me to assist not in the torture of the supposed heretics, but in the gathering and disposal of the dead and rotting corpses. It was most dull and undignified work for a demon of my stature." Sebastian ended with a pouting frown. Truly he hated to even think back to that time. He'd missed out on nearly all the fun.

His young Master snorted. "Figured your injured pride would be the source of your worst discomfort. In any matter, this then, shall not affect you at all." Before the demon could make a rejoinder, Ciel commanded him once more with a pointed finger. "Sit there and do not speak. In fact, you are to close your eyes until I give you leave to open them again."

Sebastian, most thoroughly intrigued and yet still wary, forced himself not to hesitate and took a seat in the arm chair his Little Lord had bid him. Finally with a last lingering look, he closed his eyes with a sigh. Truly, the demon was well versed in the knowledge that he gained immeasurable pleasure simply from looking upon Ciel's face; the loss of his sight was a sad one.

"Now, since you've so graciously offered your services, I'm going to use you for ... a …. let's call it an experiment." His tiny contractor seemed to hum his own approval before Sebastian heard the rustling of the bedsheets. "Sebastian, this is an order, you are to touch yourself wherever you wish." The demon blinked behind his closed eyelids, sure that his naturally prudish Young Master did NOT give a roundabout order for self-gratification. "Mind you, I am not ordering anything specific, but if you bore me to sleep, you'll be stuck there until I wake in the morning." Sebastian heard the barely suppressed and, mostly cruel, laughter in the other's words.

Truly, his Master was a demon in his past life.

Very well then, the demon was determined to deliver. He began by allowing some slippage in his outward appearance. His nails lengthened to their true black claws; the blackness climbing up to the second knuckle of his fingers. He began with the innocuous placement of his palms upon his knees. He arched his hands and then lightly dragged his claws up, up, slowly up his thighs, over his hips, his obliques before pushing them over his chest, just barely missing his nipples and over to meet and the back of his neck. The entire affair sent a shiver down his spine, doubly delicious as he could both feel his Master's gaze and hear his quickened breath.

 _Oh? Was this exciting the Young Lord?_

"Hurry up demon, or I'll assume you mean to put me to sleep."

Sebastian chuckled at the bravado of his contractor's voice; he could not determine if it was false or not but such hardly mattered when it came to Ciel. The demon dragged his hands through his hair, down his face to his neck, tilting his head back to secure his hands with a fierceness that showed through his tendons and veins. He made a show of expelling all the air left in his lungs and kept his head tilted back before raking his nails back down his chest and abdomen until his fingers pushed into the place where his thigh met his pelvis, just shy of touching his actual groin.

A deep sniff of the air granted the demon confusing information. Yes, the boy was aroused, but not by much. Sebastian could hear his elevated heart, could hear the blood whooshing through his veins and his quickened breath but still…

And then the dreaded happened. His master _sighed._

"That's enough Sebastian, I've found what I needed. You may speak."

The demon relaxed his body and shifted himself into a polite sitting position. "My Lord? And just what were you looking for?" He was having quite a hard time keeping his frustration from filtering into his voice.

"It's of no consequence to you. Here," The boy was patting the bed. "come sleep beside me. Perhaps I will be free from anymore terrors if I am not alone."

"May I open my eyes?"

"Do you need your eyes open to find the bed, demon?"

"No, My Lord."

"Then hurry up."

When they were settled and Sebastian had finally gotten a hold of his fluctuating passions he ventured to ask a question plaguing him terribly. "My Lord?" He whispered.

"What is it?" Ciel answered; his voice in the in-between of sleep and wake.

"Did you truly not find me to your liking? If it suits you, I can change my appearance to be more towards your palate."

"Shush, demon; I never said that. Now try to sleep."

Should he have been a lesser demon, Sebastian would have whined in frustrated grief. Such a conflicting, worrisome, irksome, arrogant, bullheaded little human his contractor was. How could he, a little slip of bones and flesh, put an eons old creature of hell through such turmoil, Sebastian could not understand. But the demon licked his lips with a shiver down his spine. This little human boy was no more worried about the naked, hungry demon at his back than he was about the monsters hiding under his bed. The demon, with his claws still out, could just as easily tear straight through the soft flesh of the insolent creature before Ciel could so much as utter a command. And yet the boy's breathing evened out and sleep fell upon him as if he were free from any and all worries. Not a care was given to the naked, ravenous hellion whom he had seen fit to confine and ridicule.

Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey.


	6. 006: The night a Demon is Murdered

Tale 006

'The night a Demon is Murdered'

It was an auspicious, fall night.

An autumn's full moon was in its glorious glow; autumn was a restless time for un-mated demons. The witching hours were at their longest, the portals between worlds were at their widest, and the lines balancing the divergent realms of all creatures were at their thinnest.

Previously, such nights hadn't much bothered the butler while contracted. However, this night was different. As it happened, all Hollow's Eve fell on a full moon this night and Sebastian could taste the wickedness in the air. Fate had, once again, thrown his Master into quite the predicament and they were finishing up their plans to raid the building holding unsuspecting criminals who dabbled in the murder of children and use of their corpses in occult rituals.

"Their plan is undoubtedly to summon or raise something, My Lord."

"Undoubtedly." The younger parroted, swinging his cane with a disinterested drawl. "I'll trust your judgement in this matter. The plan was to wait until they were in the thick of their ritual, as the Queen wants information on just _what_ their goal was, but think you to stop the show before then?" Ciel fixed his butler with a focused stare. Sebastian lavished in it.

"Hmm, yes, the Queen's wants are a priority….I suppose we can let them begin a bit before interrupting. I should be able to glean just what their objectives were from their initial ceremonies alone."

Ciel raised a brow and sucked on his pipe. "You're right familiar enough with all manners of the otherworldly, where just the initial ceremonies will do?"

Sebastian felt a comfortable smirk settle into place. He placed a hand over his chest and bowed at the waist. "My Lord, what sort of Phantomhive butler would I be, if I could not even discern occult ceremonies in their initial stages?"

Surprisingly the young teen laughed heartedly, needing to place a stabilizing hand on the trunk of the tree so he wouldn't fall from where Sebastian had placed him in the branches, up some ways. He giggled a little more before taking a puff and letting out the smoke with a warm smile. Even with is asthma, his Master had taken to smoking menthol and mint mixes to calm his nerves and found the practice quite favorable. Ciel went back to twirling his cane; he had gotten quite adept at it in the last year. Which was understandable as the boy hardly ever put it down. "Indeed. Very well, my most trusted chess piece, I shall leave it to you."

"As my Master wishes, so shall it be done." Sebastian purred.

So they waited. His Master sat smoking, twirling his cane, legs swinging playfully below his perch on the branch. The butler stood on an adjacent branch, hand tucked over his beating heart, slightly bowed at the waist, his unblinking gaze never leaving his Master's lovely face. For quite a while they waited. For any other prey, such lack of movement from Sebastian for so long would be unnervingly inhuman and therefore uncomfortable to be around. But little Ciel Phantomhive was unbothered. Even as Sebastian employed his greater hearing and vision, his Master's heart rate remained unchanged. He didn't sweat or fidget nervously. No; he was comfortably nestled within his mind and from time to time he would graciously present Sebastian a glance. Not to check if he was still there, not to be sure he hadn't been left alone, helplessly high up in a tree. But a look _given_ to the demon; as if to assuage Sebastian that he hadn't forgotten about him. A look that was meant to assure Sebastian that Ciel was simply inactive and not _ignoring_ him.

The demon wondered again, just how intuitive his Master really was. To hone in on a demon's mood so well as to know when to metaphorically pet his ruffled feathers. Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey. Surely Ciel Phantomhive was the best meal to be had this side of the century.

The demon's ears perked and he finally rose from his position. "They are beginning, My Lord."

"Very well." His Master exhaled in a breathy sigh. Ciel held out his hand and at once his demon complied. Once firmly on the ground he handed his pipe over wordlessly and began to stroll toward the building just under a mile away, his cane tucked artfully under his arm. "Let's take our time. Once we arrive, incapacitate everyone present and line them up. I'll need to get some answers. We'll take a good look at their ritual then."

"As you wish it, My Lord."

It wasn't until some few meters away that something niggled the demon's senses and gave him pause. Immediately he pressed a gentle hand to Ciel's shoulder. His Master, well versed in subterfuge, was quiet and looked to his servant questionably. They both gazed back at the ramshackle wooden building seeming to just barely keep from collapsing. Sebastian was taking deep lungfulls of air, seeing if he could find that scent that had bothered him. Finally, Ciel spoke. "Sebastian?"

"My Lord," The demon began though he was still attempting to discover the contents of edifice. "There must be some sort of barrier up, I thought I scented something odd, but now I cannot smell anything. Not even the humans I can hear inside."

"Hmm." His Master leaned to one side and thought. "That is a problem. We certainly wouldn't want to walk into anything completely unknown. Worse for it if you can't even tell." A few more moments passed as they both thought until there was a bloodcurdling scream. It was quickly followed by more wailing pleading. Ciel stiffened. "Tch. Sebastian, knock the blooding thing down so I can see just what is happening."

The demon complied immediately. He battered against the barrier in one fell swoop and instantly tore into the structure so than the edifice buckled and collapsed outward. It was imperative that his Lord be able to discern what was inside the building, after all. As soon as the barrier fully settled into ruin, Sebastian's hackles rose and he snarled wordlessly while leaping back to his Master's side to crouch a bit before him.

Ciel's face betrayed his surprise and looked about for the cause of Sebastian's reaction. It wasn't very hard to find once the stiff English wind blew the debris clouds away. There covered in the entrails of the stupid human summoners were three guile-less demons in thier starkest forms. All dark horns, feathers and leathered skin with teeth abound. Three sets of glowing eyes lit upon the duo. "Well now, this is most unexpected." Ciel commented a bit more casually than Sebastian felt was warranted.

"My Lord, I greatly dislike this current situation and would rather we retreated for now." The demon said soberly, his eyes never leaving the pile of his brethren. For Sebastian, the wily demon that he was, could see right through the still dark bodies as they assessed whether he and his Master were threats. Were it Sebastian himself there, feasting on, no doubt, sub-par souls equivalent to street vendor fair and in came waltzing in what smelled like a full-course gourmet meal…..contracted to a fellow demon or not, he would propose to work together for just long enough to kill whoever was in the way and then fight amongst his brothers for the spoils of Ciel's soul.

"Come now, Sebastian. I can understand this certainly isn't what we were expecting, but are you not confident in your ability to stand your ground against the odds?"

Sebastian's brow ticked with annoyance at the slight mockery he could hear in his pretty charge's tone. "It is not that I am fearful to stand my ground, my Lord." And truly it wasn't. Honestly, Sebastian would relish in the chance to shed his human guise and engage in the type of bloody territorial exercise that he was beginning to miss from such a long period of abstinence. But the chance…..the _possibility_ that just one of them could get to Ciel before Sebastian could interfere was too great to even consider. The potential consequences far outstripped any potential benefits of a good, gory battle. No matter what his little Lord thought.

"Come now." His Master repeated. And though Sebastian didn't dare glance his way, he stiffened from the tone which the demon had come to associate with his human's most brash recklessness colored with a dash of insanity. "They seem like logical, competent fellows; like you, no?" Ciel laughed with genuine amusement, twirling his black lacquered cane without a care, and took a few steps forward to Sebastian's great dismay.

The demons themselves had been statuesque in their stillness and none but their eyes moved to keep track of both Ciel and Sebastian. The butler, of course shadowed his dauntless charge's every step with hyperactive tenseness that was truly unprecedented in their contracted time.

"Let's see here;" Ciel began in a slightly louder, but genial tone. He absentmindedly twirled his cane over his left wrist to his right hand to make room for his faithful servant whom was very nearly breathing down his neck. "My name is Ciel Phantomhive and I've been sent by the current human Queen of this territory to investigate the goings-on in this here neck of the woods." He made a sweeping gesture with his hand that was followed by all three sets of demonic eyes. "Honestly, I have no orders other than the answering of 'what' exactly happened, so I have no reason or inclination to interfere with your….dining." Ciel's head turned towards the rather large ritual drawing on the floor with interest. "Seems everything was fairly conducted on your parts." He took another step forward and before Sebastian could follow he huffed an exasperated sigh. "Heel, Sebastian; I'm not in any danger."

That gained step put him nearly in the reach of the closest demon towards them. Ciel was still closer to Sebastian, but he was within striking distance of one of the still silent guests that watched him like a hawk. The Lord used his foot push some rubble around so he could better inspect the cursed drawings. "Ye Gods, it seems they most likely didn't mean to summon you three but….I don't hold their incompetence against you. A fair meal is a fair meal. Ah, but where are my manners?" In his most insane endeavor yet, his little charge, merrily swinging about his walking stick, held out is left hand in greeting, as if he were speaking to polite English society. He took one more large step forward and tittered in his most charming voice, "I don't believe I asked your name?"

The demon, still bare in his most unnatural and intimidating form, must have deemed Ciel the same as a lost sheep wandering into the wolve's mouth, for he opened his mouth in a smile showing all four rows of teeth and shifted his body to pounce upon the unsuspecting little Earl.

It was with great surprise to all four demons present that a whooshing sound, not unlike the highest pitch on whistle occurred, and the pouncing demon's head rolled right off his shoulder.

The shock in that moment was great and difficult to ascertain.

Humans simply didn't waltz up and-and….!

But there was his Master, with a marked casualness, inspecting a long thin blade no longer than the width of two of Sebastian's fingers, humming at the thick black liquid that coated one side. He swung the blade again, with practiced ease to fling the blood off, before carefully reinserting it inside what was now obviously it's black lacquered sheath. The smug teen laughed joyously. "Leave it to Undertaker, that crazy old bat, to produce such fine work." The human, ignoring the widened eyes of his audience leaned down to pick up the horned head of his most recent kill.

"Sebastian!" He barked, startling the remaining three demons.

For reasons unknown, the butler found himself falling to his knee, eyes still genuinely wide as he gazed at his Master. The same Master holding the head of his dead brethren. "Yes, my Lord." He breathed out. His tone colored with sincere reverence.

The same Master seemed not to heed the other two demons as he turned his back to them completely. "Tell me, is it possible to consume this demon's essence, be it what you strictly refer to as a _soul_ or not?"

Sebastian blinked, hardly able to get over his previous shock before his charge was throwing him into another. "I…Y-yes. It is possible my Lord. Unheard of, but possible."

"Good." The boy said before he tossed the head straight at Sebastian's blinking face. "Do it. You've been starving yourself for who knows how long and I'll not have you susceptible to infections like you were after the Welsh Kidnapping case. I don't care if it is or isn't palatable, eat it."

Sebastian, blinked further in disbelief, acutely aware of the horrified stares of his brethren but a few meters away. There was a reason demons didn't go feasting on each other as a food source. One, it was extremely difficult to kill one of their kind; one needed either a blade of Leviathan, Shinigami or some Blessed metal. Their bare claws alone, were enough to rend each other apart but eventually the demon would heal no matter how small the pieces. But beyond that, it was said that the essence of a demon had the flavor equivalent to eating a handful of dirt. In Sebastian's book, that was deterrent enough.

The butler sighed. _Orders are orders._

With a grimace he put his mouth to the lips of trophied head in his hands and _pulled_. Sebastian swallowed the icky substance like a shot of alcohol, not wanting the taste to linger on his tongue any longer than was strictly necessary. He grimaced once more. "It is done, my Lord." He coughed out, rising once again, one hand held the head and the other placed submissively over his heart. Already the demon was beginning to feel his own core grow warm with power.

"Good." Ciel nodded with a grave imperiousness. His small stature turned back towards the last two demons. Both seemed to shake out of their stupors with hisses; one backing up until it was nearly touching the other. This reaction to his little Lord alone, marveled Sebastian in such a way it wasn't cliché at all to say his breath had been stolen. His Master spoke, his tone gone from the airy, childish tittering he'd been using before. "Now, see here demons. I've had to stay sat in a god-damned tree for hours waiting to get information on a ring of child murders and what do I come in to see? Your filthy lot munching on the only means to get my answers!" The mad little hatter slammed his walking stick-cum-weapon into the dirt with a type of brazen finality that caused to hellish creatures to start and retreat a few more steps. "Now I have to go and show my face to my Queen in failure and it is precisely _your_ fault. You two had best be grateful it wasn't you I decided to feed to my hound!" The Early pointed his black cane at the trespassers with a quiet snarl. "Get out of my country and do not come back. The next time I get wind of your stench you'll be considered free game, and treated as such."

The creatures, though they didn't make any coherent attempts to communicate, did very much understand and with a healthy respect of the little human's gumption skirted around until they were once more in contact with the drawn curse. In a wispy black flash, they were gone.

With a childish huff and a stomped foot, Ciel twirled in frustration and kicked a few more pieces of debris out of the way to get a better look at the cult writings. "What the devil am I supposed to make of this! Ugh. Incompetent, gutter-rat, cutthroats; murdering children and for what!?" The Earl muttered more outraged grumbles as he attempted to piece together what exactly had been the motive. The butler, though, still felt adrift. One thing, however, was of main concern.

"My Lord?" the demon inquired softly, surprised at himself with his reluctance to further agitate his Master. Their dynamic….would never be the same.

Ciel turned with a raised brow, no doubt at the reticent tone of voice. "What is it, Sebastian?"

The demon licked his lips and assumed his customary bow at the waist. "I would like to inquire what it is you're wielding, if I may." He nodded to the lacquered cane.

For a long moment Ciel's impassive face seemed to be debating before he gave nod. "Very well. Come here, kneel." The butler obeyed, kneeling on his customary knee as his contractor released his blade and held it horizontally for Sebastian to observe. "This is what all the secrecy with the Undertaker was about."

The demon studied the blade. It was indeed thin in width but also thickness, leading him to believe that it was very light. What was surprising were the finely serrated edges that ran along the length of the blade until a few inches from the tip. The barbs curved elegantly in one direction, which would make inserting the blade easy but pulling it out as painful for the victim as possible as their flesh caught on the edges. The tip ended at a needle point and there was one shallow grove on the flat side to allow blood to drain off the blade.

Each feature, all the way up to the ornate cuff that acted like a guard, was obviously, lovingly crafted. The work of a true master.

"How do you feel, by the way?" His Master spoke and Sebastian lifted his head to gaze upon his passive face and tilted head. "Was your meal nutritious?"

Sebastian blinked. "Quite, my Lord. I feel…..powerful. Energized."

Ciel nodded and sheathed his sword with a snap. "Good. Now, let us see if we can make heads or tail of this mess."

The butler complied and they began to investigate but the significance wasn't lost to him. No, not at all.

His weak little human contractor wielded a Shinigami blade and that…..

That changed everything.


	7. 007 (1): An old Demon learns new Tricks

Tale 007 [Part 1]

' An old Demon learns new Tricks '

It was **not** usual behavior for his Master to use him as a guinea pig.

Sebastian could assume the reason was thus; even though most human contraptions and creations simply did not work on him, the butler himself was his Master's most valuable item. His Master Phantomhive's pride did not allow him to risk so something so prized for simple curiosity alone, as most boys his age would.

This day, however, was different.

A mad scientist, of sorts, had been kidnapping young adults from all over Europe, between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, and smuggling them back to his personal lab in the countryside of Wales. Apparently it had been happening for some time, these disappearances. Though, once the Earl of Bath's child was taken during a vacationing, the Crown got involved. That is to say, his Master was tasked to find the Earl's daughter and serve justice to whomever wasn't bright enough to realize they could not kidnap English royalty with no consequences. It took Sebastian and his Master roughly three weeks to track the scientist down to his final lair. Things went as smoothly as usual up until the point where they found the noble girl dressed in rags, strapped down to some stone table with a noxious liquid being forcefully dripped into her blood stream.

Ciel sighed, his shoulders dropping with exasperation. Sebastian could sympathize, their job was just further complicated.

Attempting to get information out of the captured scientist proved impossible. The man was well and truly insane, no amount of fear or pain was going to change that. The girl looked sickly, was tossing and groaning, yet seemed to remain unconscious. Ciel had bidden Sebastian unhook her and attempt to get her to drink as much water as possible but that didn't seem to be changing much. It was then that his Master gave the order.

"Sebastian, consume the rest of that liquid and see if you can puzzle together what it does."

Sebastian himself had sighed and given his customary bow. "Yes, My Lord." The demon hadn't been very worried, it was very, very, _very_ rare that human creations had any sort of effect on demons.

Unfortunately, this seemed to be one of those times.

The effect wasn't instantaneous. In fact, the most Sebastian had been able to do at the time, was use his superior palate to detect different herbs and plants used. But the overall effect was left beyond his grasp. The mission ended with both the perpetrator and evidence being packed up and sent back to England with Ciel's report, and the young girl sent to a hospital in the city.

It wasn't until some nine days later, back at the Phantomhive manor that Sebastian became ill.

In hindsight it made sense. Sebastian's human guise functioned as any human body would, for the most part. His digestive system was just a little different. Human food was either palatable or disgusting depending on what was eaten and demons didn't gain any nutrients from human food. Anything digested through Sebastian's human guise, he usually discreetly vomited later, as he had no working human digestive system and the food would often just sit and fester inside of his "stomach".

So when he had consumed that poison he should have vomited what little it was as soon as possible but….Sebastian was ashamed to admit he had forgotten.

Thus is had festered and spread through his system.

The first indication of a problem occurred when one morning after having "slept" Sebastian found he could not slip into his human guise. No matter how he tried it would appear, but it would not stay. This had never happened before and it left the demon stunned for an answer for well over an hour. His tardiness was noted by his contractor and a violent pull had him within Ciel's room before he could think to stop himself.

It took one look at his face for Ciel's own eyes to widen and he gasped, "What the bloody hell has happened?"

Sebastian tried again to contain himself into human skin. When it failed again he let his arms drop to his sides. "I cannot say. I do not know what is happening."

His Master opened his mouth to speak but suddenly there was a knock at the door. "Young Master, uh-" Mayrin stuttered. "uh- it seems Mister Sebastian doesn't have breakfast for you yet but um-y-your first tutor has arrived earlier than scheduled. What sh-"

"Send him back." The little Lord called sternly. "Sebastian has fallen ill and this must take precedence. Give my apologies and send the tutor back. Have Tanaka cancel all my appointments for today as well as tomorrow. Am I clear?"

"Y-yes sir! Right away sir!"

There were swift clodden footsteps before Ciel turned back toward the demon with a sigh. "Now what are we going to do about you. Have you any idea what is happening? And why are you so far away?"

Sebastian shook his head, in the furthest corner of the room where it was darkest. The drapes covered the windows still, but sunlight would always be a powerful entity. "The light of sun is an irritant on my natural skin. If it is all the same to you, I would prefer to remain in the dark while I attempt to sort this out, my Lord."

Ciel nodded and hummed while pushing himself out the bed to wander closer to his butler. "That makes sense. Even still, we really must get this together at once. Try it again."

Sebastian nodded and once more attempted to slip into human skin only this time an awful type of numbness occurred making the creature gasp and halt his progress. A glance down told Sebastian he was partially clothed in human skin, his arms and legs nearly completely covered, but he could not _feel_ them. "My Lord, an odd paralysis and numbness has occurred in my limbs."

"Because they are in your guise?" Ciel asked to clarify. The demon nodded. "Odd." The boy poked at the arm while looking at his demon. Sebastian shook what could be relatively called his head, to indicate no feeling. "All right, this must have stemmed from something. Let us think; what have you done differently to warrant such an effect?"

Sebastian, grateful he was in his metaphysical form and not his Demonic form, tilted his formless head, glowing magenta eyes narrowed in thought before they widened in realization. "My Lord, I know exactly. This must be from that tonic I consumed some days ago." He sighed once he realized his own faults. "I had forgotten to vomit the fluid afterwards. It is rare, but possible, for human-made toxins to effect otherworldly creatures."

Ciel blinked. "Interesting." The little Lord put a fist to his chin in thought and gazed at his butler. "Well, I am not a heartless employer and injuries acquired on the job, especially at my behest, will be met with the rest and care they deserve." He nodded, more to himself than Sebastian. "Come, you will stay in my chamber so that I can keep an eye on your progress. Lie down for now. Periodically we will see how long it takes for this to leave your system. _Is_ the liquid still in your belly?"

The demon sighed. "I do believe so my Lord. Normally I would go outside to dispose of such a thing, which must be undoubtedly foul by now, but it is regrettably bright and I am not sure how I would react to the stress of sunlight in such a state."

Ciel nodded once again, pulling back his covers for the pitch black amalgamation to slide under. "Too true, we needn't invite anymore negligence into such a delicate situation. Very well, change back for now and let us hope you can last until sundown at its soonest."

There was the tiny silver lining of watching his Master struggle through going about his morning routine and clothing himself before trotting off to find breakfast. Quickly the butler, whom daily handled five or six times the work of a normal human man, became bored. The only relief was tracking his Master throughout the manor as he struggled with his household. It was mid-afternoon, by now they would usually have been concluding their sparring sessions, when Sebastian decided he would have another attempt to slip into his human skin.

To his surprise he was successful, he could feel his form solidifying with a gained sense of worldly connection to the laws of nature. And then with a sort of intangible 'pop' he was as close to human as he could get. A profound sense of accomplishment filtered through him right until he attempted to move and then—nothing.

He couldn't move.

Not a finger, not a toe, not anything more than his eyes, mouth and one or two muscles in his lower back.

With a surge of alarm, the demon realized he was stuck. He still could not move an inch and his body and power were not responding to his will. He tried to reign in his fury and agitation to a rational level. This must be another after-effect of the random, vile human concoction. Either way, such a lack of control over his own personage was not to be borne. So uncomfortable was the foreign feeling of confinement, that Sebastian decided to cut his losses and revert back to his natural skin but…! Once again, nothing. He could not change back!

He pulsed out his power to respond to his will and was met once more with failure. Failure?

What was this? What was happening?

He tried again.

And again.

And again.

 _Andagainandagainandagainandagain!_

Sebastian was barely aware of his gasping, his reaching for air as if he really needed it, as if it were possible for him to drown. He perspired unnaturally and his violent urges made slight undulations with his body, as his muscles contracted randomly with strain. This wasn't working. He needed…he needed something! Someone! What was this? In a fit, the demon was able to toss his head, a wordless, soundless scream resounding through his head, down the line of his contract until it hit Ciel like a bag of bricks. Some part of Sebastian was vaguely aware of a crash and then running until the door burst open with a panting prickly young Master. The boy closed the door with a slam.

"What the bloody hell is happening? Sebastian?"

Sebastian was in no state to form coherent thoughts much less give an accurate account of his being to his little Master. Never had anything of his nature happened to him. Not even in his most starved state had this happened. Not even after the bloodiest of battles had he been so disconnected from his core. He had fought covens of lesser demons over territory, engaged in high stakes games of 'hide and seek' with both Shinigami and Angels alike. He'd battled fey, lycanthropes and the most powerful of ancient witches and shamans. He'd suffered such damage as to have lost limbs, been bisected, and even coped without a head! But always his core was connected; even injured he was in control of himself.

But this? He couldn't.

This—this confinement!

The loss of _control_ over his very own body. To have his form be an enemy against him, ignoring his will. TRAPPED. Sebastian roiled, gasping, muscles strained and eyes rolling around as he fought blindly. He couldn't get out! He couldn't get out! He couldn't get out! He couldn't get free! HE MUST BE FREE!

"Shhhhhh, easy." Like water in a desert. Like the cold shadows after tireless sunlight. A cool, smooth palm was placed on his forehead. "I need you to calm yourself, Sebastian." The hand moved down so that it was covering the demon's eyes. "Follow my breath, Sebastian. Listen to my lungs, my heart. Can you hear it? Count its' beats."

"Yu….young Master." Sebastian's throat could barely patch together the sounds needed to communicate. He attempted to follow that soft dulcet tone, he grasped at the instant peace it lent him. His Master was here.

"Yes. You called for me, did you realize?" The boy removed his hand and Sebastian looked into one wide intrusive stare from an endlessly blue eye. "It's the first I've ever felt that, the pull. You called for me, Sebastian."

The demon's brows drew together. "I did?" he croaked. The boy nodded solemnly and further confused the creature. "I-I didn't know I could…why would I-"

"How do you feel?" Ciel interrupted him, leaving the somewhat disoriented butler to blink up blankly at him. "Sebastian, do you understand what you were just doing? What you were feeling? Why you called me?"

His Master began to run his blunt nails soothingly through his tussled midnight hair, further disorienting Sebastian's thoughts. What was he feeling? "I don't understand, Young Master."

"I suppose not, you are but a demon." The Little Lord gave an amused huff and leaned down so that their foreheads touched, making it impossible for Sebastian to look anywhere other than at his Master. "You musn't understand; most likely you haven't the capacity for it. Strange and yet, I could see why it would send you in a tizzy."

The demon shook his head, needing some space, not understanding and feeling waves of agitation, as he was continuously unable to move his own body, ripple through his mortal coil. "What do you mean? Young Master what are you saying? Do you know what is happening?" Though how could that be? Anything Ciel Phantomhive knew, Sebastian Michaelis had instructed him in. "How would you know what I am feeling?" He was frustrated. He couldn't under-

"Panic." The word was spoken in a stern command silencing the room. Sebastian blinked up at Ciel. "You were—are panicking. You are afraid, I imagine, at your _helplessness_." The boy gave an unkind smile. "It's all very … human."

Sebastian gaped. Feeling something hot which suspiciously felt like fury, bubble in his stomach. Still he was silent. To have his human, or any human for that matter, call him helpless, afraid accuse him of PANICKING…!

And yet Ciel never stopped his careful petting of his beast. "You know, there was a girl, dark haired like you and younger than I was, back when those sodden, fecking cultists had us all herded in our own filth. They'd had their way with her, as they had with all of us, but she—well she just wasn't strong enough to cope so…so one night, during the night, she started to seize. Right next to me. I could tell right away she was dying and was all the gladder for it. She didn't deserve to be there any longer than she already had but, it looked painful. You know? So I just pet her hair, just like this, and watched her go. I prayed that night, last night I ever prayed, that I would follow her. That I wouldn't ever wake up again." The boy sighed casually. "And well, you see how that went. Still here and all. But you, like this, you remind me of her, Sebastian. And isn't that funny?"

The demon continued to mutely stare at his charge. Ciel moved on to gently caressing his face and neck, reluctantly soothing the ire that was building in the creature.

"If I thought you capable, I would ask you to take this moment to learn about vulnerability and meekness and mercy. But I won't Sebastian. Because I don't need you weak, or vulnerable, or merciful." And Sebastian watched the child smile at him, though there be a bit of an unhinged quality to it. "What separates us, you and me, is that I am human, and therefore have a limit to how I'm willing to treat you in your moment of weakness, demon. So,"

Ciel leaned down further, placing a soft innocuous kiss to the enraptured demon. He spoke against the pale skin. "I won't hurt you Sebastian. In your time of weakness, I won't ridicule you, I won't take advantage of you and won't hold this against you. I will protect you as best as I can until you are better. And not because I am responsible for you." The young Lord pulled back, his long lashes lifting to expose a blue eye that Sebastian, in his slight delirium, would have sworn was glowing.

"But because that is what kindness is, and even _you_ deserve to know that feeling."


	8. 008: The Demon is an Opportunist

Tale 008

' The Demon is an Opportunist '

Sebastian burst through the townhouse door, his bleeding Master in one arm and two stacked crates in the other. Right behind the black clad butler was a white clad butler, the ever vile, Mr. Charles Grey. How Sebastian wished to repay him for his many _kindnesses_ against them.

"You have your orders, Sebastian. I don't care how much you don't like them."

The demon gritted his teeth. "Yes, My Lord."

"Master Ciel!" Came the boisterous voice of Agni, followed by an even louder wail from Soma.

"Ciel! You're hurt!"

"Agni." Ciel commanded, as if the Indian man also worked for him. "Do me a favor and see to my leg. I've been shot here in the thigh and the bleeding needs attention. Soma, if you could, entertain our distinguished guest Mr. Grey until Sebastian has his package ready."

The white butler inspected his nails. "The Queen made it very clear from the beginning that the priority was to get the stolen intelligence paperwork _intact_ no matter the costs. I certainly hope you won't be showing your face in failure, Earl Phantomhive. Again."

Ciel grimaced as he was passed from Sebastian to Agni and all three of them hurried up the stairs. He called back. "Fear not, Sebastian needs only to restore them a bit and they will be perfectly legible." Once they were upstairs and out of ear shot Ciel's fist lunged out and grasped his servant's lapel. "You CAN fix them, right?"

Sebastian frowned. "They were destroyed in a fire. I can recreate them as I have done many things before, my Lord. However, it will take power and time, under these circumstances you must take priority."

Ciel sighed and stabilized himself as Agni placed him on a settee in his room. The Indian man promptly began to undress his bloody and filthy clothes. " _Your_ priority is to see to those papers, I'm sure Agni is fine to see to me for now. Do them a bit at a time, even a few pages if you must, just get that good-for-nothing, codswallower _something_ so he can leave my property! If we have to deliver them in installments so be it! Blimey, Agni!" The boy yelped at the end as his shorts were peeled off the wound. Sebastian gave a start towards Ciel at the cry but the smaller shooed him with his hand. "Get to it, you dimwit! The faster you are the sooner you can get Grey off my back."

Sebastian was just able to save himself from snarling at his Lord and went to the corner of the room, where Ciel was still within his sights, and set down the crates. It wasn't terribly difficult work, but to turn back time and rebuild pages that were essentially ash, required focused concentration. Which he didn't have because all he could think about was how it was _his_ responsibility to undress his Lord. _His_ duty to console and mend those injuries. It was Sebastian's, and _only_ Sebastian's, right to touch his Lord's bare skin! The demon's jaw tightened and he attempted to renew his concentration on the task at hand. If he could just get a few pamphlets done, he could send Sir Grey on his way and send the Indian butler off just as well.

It was tedious work, but finally, through Ciel being sponge bathed briefly and his leg wrapped, Sebastian was done with some eighty pages. It was enough to keep the crown occupied until he could finish the rest. He told his Lord so.

Ciel nodded, he was exhausted but still upright in a chair. "Take Grey with you and deliver them personally to the Queen. I don't trust him not to screw us over. Agni will stay with me in the meantime." Sebastian opened his mouth to protest but Ciel shut him up with an outward hand. "That wasn't a point for debate. Go."

With narrowed eyes and a growl, Sebastian stood and turned with a flurry. If he were simply leaving by himself, he could pop over to the palace and back in no time. But he wasn't; he was accompanying a thrice damned human and the entire trip would take some couple hours.

By the time he made it back he was both angry and anxious and disgusted with himself for even that. It never failed to amaze him, how much this particular contractor could move his usually stoic bearing.

Agni met him at the door, his sympathetic face and clapped hands in front of him. "Mr. Sebastian, please, don't be upset. I know how, as a servant of your Lord, you must have hated that you couldn't be there for him. Just know, I didn't and could never take your place." He gave a short bow and locked eyes right with the demon.

Sebastian sighed and attempted to quell his hatred for the light-hearted Agni. Truly, he was a being cut from a very different cloth than Sebastian and his Master. "My Lord can be pernicious and demanding, I understand. Thank you for taking care of him. Is there anything I should be aware of?"

The khansama's face brightened. "Yes! It was no problem at all! He was in much pain so he took a small diluted dose of opiate in his tea, just a few minutes ago in fact. I would suggest checking the wound every few hours to make sure there's no infections. Other than that, he'll be just fine in a few weeks."

Sebastian bowed with as much good grace as he could muster. "Well then, I'll return to him."

Entering his Master's bedchamber to the overwhelming scent of another was honestly maddening. "Sebastian?" Came a somewhat slurred voice. "You're back? By time, ye gods, did you blow the chap on the way? What the bloody hell took you so long?"

A brow ticked on the demon's otherwise impassive face. "Ahhh, good to know the Young Lord is well enough to make crass insults to his most loyal servant. Do keep in mind, my Lord, that I was simply following _your_ orders." If he was this cantankerous, most likely the opiate hadn't fully hit his system yet.

Ciel seemed to give a gurggly, snorted scoff that piqued the demon's interest.

 _Correction; just how far gone was his human?_

"By the by, demon. At least Agni was useful; my bloody leg was burning like the seventh layer in hell. Now, I can barely feel the thing. Don't suppose I'll be fit to tour the factory in Manchester so you'll need to cancel that-argh! What the dickens do you think you're doing!?"

During his human's rambling, Sebastian had slithered closer to his charge, intent on investigating the sources of Agni's powerful scent. Sensing Ciel's lack of focus, the beast dived his nose right into his Master's person. He sniffed the boy's petite, swan-like neck, appalled and increasingly jealous, at the heaviness of the intruder's scent there. Most likely the human butler had needed to hold his charge's neck to support his doll-like head as the boy whined sweetly from pain. He could imagine those long, cloth covered fingers holding between them, the very life source of his charge, the place they boy was most vulnerable, the place he liked to eye the most. The irritated demon continued to investigate further, his intoxicated Master had given no clear orders to stop, other than his incoherent ramblings and weak pushes, so for once, Sebastian accommodated himself. His inquisitions would not be appeased until he knew for sure, just what and where had been touched.

"Sebastian!" Was gasped and a great handful of the demon's hair pulled when he set about smelling his Master's lower waist towards his hips and groin. The creature, honestly, had been more occupied with his investigation than anything more nefarious, but the quality of that high-pitched gasp shook him back to reality. He raised his head to observe a flushed, comely face, unfocused, blinking doe eyes, and the most unintentionally lascivious expression he had ever seen on his human. Ever.

"Se-Sebastian, stop this a-a-at once!"

The demon cocked his head, he felt none of the force that always accompanied an order or directive or even a firmly worded request. There was simply…nothing. Did that mean the boy didn't really mean it? The demon cocked his head the other way and observed his charge. Most likely, he was just high off his rocker and unable to command his higher functions, still… Sebastian felt a wily, unkind smirk take hold. His Master should know better than to let down his guard in the presence of one such as him.

"My Lord," he fairly simpered, not once letting his grip go. "You are in need of cleansing. You may not be able to tell, but my nose is far superior and can detect the taint. Won't you allow me to clean you properly?" He was already well underway of ridding the babbling mess of his nightshirt.

"W-whaa?"

 _Ah, the drug must have fully kicked in by now._ He laughed softly in the dark; constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey

"Not to fear, my doll, my beautiful little human," Sebastian grinned as Ciel's head lolled, the boy no longer having the wherewithal to control it. He nosed down the little one's pale and bruised skin of his chest to the top of one injured leg. "your humble servant will take proper care of you." He too deep lungfulls of Ciel's scent, unhappy with how much of Agni was interspersed and yet in his crusade to clean, everywhere Agni's scent rested was free game. He licked his lips before moving upwards once more to start at his favorite place. With a hum, Sebastian gave a long satisfying lick from collarbone up to a delicate ear; cleaning all presence of other so that all that remained was the demon's hellish scent. His textured tongue took its time, tasting all his prey had to offer. Ciel's soul was so robust it seemed to barely be contained by his skin; the very taste of its essence was enough to make the demon shiver and moan as much as the rattling human.

"Sebaaa…" was uttered as large eyes rolled this way and that.

Ah, the demon hound wondered if his ever dignified Master would have thought he would be making such pitiful noises such as those. The elder enjoyed the sight and sound as he moved to drag his tongue over every justifiable surface he could. The boy's petit arms, his delicate chest and ribcage where Agni must have lifted him and helped him dress. He laved thoroughly at pretty pink nipples untouched from puberty yet, even as he neared fourteen years of age. A slatternly whine and ineffectual pawing were his rewards.

Then finally he came the top of a delicate leg where it met with hip and groin and became thigh. He pushed his nose into the petal soft skin, moaning at its decadence. The bouquet of pheromones and arousal spiced with Ciel's naturally overwhelming scent, nearly drove him to a mouthwatering fervor. The demon was fairly drooling. He rid the leg of its dressing and laved at the injury and all about the surrounding area. The taste of his charge's blood was nastily tampered with medicines and ointment and truly, that was regrettable, but a veritable feast of sweat, skin and delicious moaning was enough to appease him. He carefully plucked at the delicate skin with his lips, fantasizing about the day he could ever hope to sink his teeth in such cuisine without repercussion.

It was with disappointment that he found no reason to explore the little Lord's half-erect prick or plump little behind. Most likely the boy had refused to be so much as touched there for even the most innocuous reason. Sebastian considered overruling his own self-prescribed limits of his aesthetics, just this once, especially since it was doubtful Ciel would remember this come morning. But alas, the game was no fun if even he didn't follow the rules. Then suddenly the boy sagged; blinking back into reality he glanced upward to find his charge completely unconscious. And just like that, the fun was over.

Well then, time to clean him up, re-wrap his leg and finish his other duties before daylight. He still had those papers to restore, best to get them done swiftly.

Surely his little emperor will be in a most ungracious mood come the 'marrow.

In the morning, his groggy little human drank his tea and fixed him with quite a disdainful and imperious stare.

"To take advantage of me while I had a moment of weakness; truly if ever I had doubts of you, you've confirmed you are the absolute _worst_." He hissed out. And yet, he made no further mention of what exactly he was referring to. Sebastian wondered if perhaps the boy _had_ been able to remember the previous night. Such a clever human, his contractor.

Sebastian sighed. He felt an odd prickle, interestingly, at his Master's disappointment in him. He bowed, hand over his heat. "My Lord, I am but a simple, hungry beast, collared at your behest. It could not be helped if my Owner bared his neck so invitingly."

The butler frowned; while he had spoken sincerely, that had sounded appallingly close to an apology.

A sharp 'clink' of china had the servant raising his head. "Yes." The boy seemed to be speaking to himself, his gaze inward. "It does seem as if you will need re-training." Suddenly he gave a besotted smile, elated...

Cruel.

"But do not fret, Sebastian. I know just how to fix you."

* * *

A/N: I'm sure it isn't as obvious as I think but this tale happens before both 001 and 007.


	9. 007 (2): The Demon learns to Beg

**Tale 007 [Part 2]**

 **' The Demon learns to Beg '**

It must have been at least a few hours, but as the demon lie there completely engrossed in the sound of the beating heart of the boy that rested right atop him, it felt as if nearly no time had passed at all. Such was the power Ciel Phantomhive held over him. It was a … frightening thing to swallow, the power of this morsel of soul that Sebastian had willing contracted himself to.

In that moment, stretched out in the dim chamber of his Lord, the demon would have liked to have stayed just as he was, unmoving and undisturbed. But it wasn't to be. He could feel something … changing. A new sensation tickling the nerves of his body. He fretted over whether this was an improvement to his condition or not. He decided to attempt movement once more. His digits followed his command, drilling softly against the sheets of the bed. The muscles of his arms were responsive, but just barely; as were his legs and torso. He discovered that, with concentration he could actually feel them. Suffice to say the numbness had receded and movement was indeed returning, however slowly.

Then right on the heels of his accomplishment came a lurid, overwhelmingly intense _prickling sensation_ that swelled, and then banked, and then simmered, and then grew until it seemed every nerve in his false body was alive with some sort of _heat_.

Being a demon, born of fire, he interacted differently with flames; them giving no more feeling to him than did the air. So this feeling of something licking at his skin, the raised bumps and stiff fine hairs of his false body, the only element he could associate with this feeling was _heat!_ Such was the suddenness of it, he immediately began to pant.

He wondered if his fretting had inadvertently called to his Master once again, as the boy began to stir. He raised his head off the heaving chest and took a moment to properly awaken. He yawned. "Have you gone and agitated yourself again?"

The demon licked his lips and swallowed his suddenly saliva filled mouth. "No, My Lord. Though there is some improvement in mobility, it seems…there is something else new amiss. I do not yet understand it, just that—" Again the demon had to swallow. "it is raising my temperature and making this body quite—quite sensitive to sensations." He was full out panting now, sweating and…!

 _Oh! What is this?_

The creature blinked at the ceiling and attempted to understand why exactly his body was choosing now to become aroused.

"Honestly, your quality of service has hit an all-time low. Or am I to believe that it is against your will that you show me such blatant disrespect?" His Master commented drolly, his naturally wide eyes lidded and focused on the butler's stiff and weeping cock. There was a slight snarl about his Master's face that belied his utter disdain for such a sight.

Beyond his elevated temperature and general un-wellness, Sebastian felt a mortified flush across his cheeks. "Ah—my Lord, I do not mean to be—I am not in full control of my anatomy at present. Please forgive such unseemliness." He panted out. And yet the full attention of that stunning pair of eyes seemed to translate into absolute _heat_.

"Oh?" Ciel hummed and did not speak again. He watched, his mien unconcerned, as his otherworldly servant attempted most valiantly to rein his body back under his command. But it was only getting worse. What began as prickings of sensation became full sensory overload as sight, smell and sound swelled into proportions of input that Sebastian could not fully process. The demon was not aware when he began to toss about and whine, head to and fro, eyes squeezed shut, clawed human fingers clenching and back arching and bowing off the bed. It was too light when his eyes were opened, all colors seeming to brighten into neon intensity before melding and swirling. He blinked and blinked, each time readjusting his vision only for it to spiral out of his control yet again. He whimpered in distress and even that sound reverberated through his skull like none before.

He felt, impossibly, both as if there was too much and not enough air. Both thoughts equally ridiculous as he did not _need_ oxygen to survive.

And yet all of this was quickly being overshadowed by the need growing between his legs. At first he flushed, he grew, he was erect and weeping but now he craved, he throbbed. It took all his worldly sense to clutch the bed sheets and not take himself in hand to relieve such an all-consuming ache, the like of which he had never experienced in his long, long life. Was this too from the tonic? I had to be, even in the prime of a rut he was never so unable to focus or keep aware of his surroundings. Bard himself could burst into the room with a flamethrower and there would be narry Sebastian could do about it.

He needed this done. He needed relief. He needed this to go away. He needed permission.

He needed _help_.

"Masterrrrrr." Sebastian dragged the word out, half mad at this point. He turned his head toward where Ciel's swirly colors sat next to him.

"Hmmm?" Came and enquiring sound before blessed cool skin, lightly touched his cheek and slide up to the corner of his mouth. "Your drooling, Sebastian." The demon whined once more and the boy sighed. "You know, when I was weak and inebriated back when I was shot, you were such a right bastard." Sebastian's spine tensed at the casual tone of such forbidding words. "When I'd awoke I'd wanted to think it just a horrible dream, you licking me all over like a snack before dinner. But then I asked myself, whenever has fate been kind enough that your nightmares turn out to only be dreams?" The demon positively melted when his small Master laid his small, cool palm over his eyes once more. It was illogical to feel so satisfied from so little, especially when his Young Lord had his particular brand of cruelty laced in every word between his teeth.

"My Lord, I apologized. Sincerely. I shall do so again should you requi—"

"No. I don't need apologies from you for something you couldn't control." The boy sighed again and dragged his hand down Sebastian's face over his nose and mouth to rest on his heated throat. "It is in your nature. You are but a beast and you were right that night; how could you possibly have enough self-control to restrain yourself in front of fresh meat?" Ciel lightened his touch, threatening to take it away and in that moment Sebastian knew real madness. He needed his Master to touch him, he NEEDED IT.

"Master, Master please!"

"Hmm?" Ciel inquired again and shifted his hand to lie in the middle of Sebastian's chest, right between his pectorals.

"Please, your touch, it calms me. I don't know what this is; it doesn't seem to end! Cou-would you touch me? Please sire?"

Ciel laughed his best laugh and even with his eyes squeezed closed Sebastian could hear the smirk in it. "Such brazen indecency you ask of me. Have you completely lost your respect for me as your Master? Your Owner? Filthy demon." Ciel whipped his hand away just as Sebastian flung his own hands to his chest to stop him.

His chest heaved with his choked desperation and he opened his eyes to plead with his human only for the brightened lucid colors and lightheadedness to introduce a rarely felt sensation; nausea. He groaned and slammed his lids closed again, the stress of his causing him to dig his own claws into his chest. The sensation of splitting skin helped to divert his attention away from the nausea and back to the pricklings. He ran his hands down his chest and had just met the bones of his hips before a scathing hiss sounded from his right.

"Don't you even _think_ about it." The force behind that command was so absolute that his entire body locked up.

"Cruel! Cruel!" Sebastian's head tossed back and forth as he sobbed in his madness. "My Master is so cruel! Worse than a demon!"

Ciel made an exasperated sound. "You only say that because the shoe, somehow, has finally fallen on the other foot."

"Pleeeeeease," Sebastian begged. His hand reaching out and finding the body of his little human. Somehow, even in his delirium, he was careful of his exposed claws on Ciel's delicate flesh. "I swear I'll never do such a thing as I did that night to you! Master! I understand, I f-finally understand so PLEASE!" Those stabbing tingles flushed over him from head to toe, causing the demon to arch sharply on the bed.

"You really are quite a mess." He heard his Master say before the cool, little hand was back on his chest.

Sebastian gave a shuddering sigh.

"And what, exactly, are you asking of me?" Sebastian attempted to look upon his Lord, wincing and blinking before another hand laid over his eyes. "Leave it demon, and just speak."

"I—" Sebastian gulped for air and stability that he just couldn't seem to retain. "I do not know exactly why or how but I know I need to be touched by you, My Lord."

The hand over his eyes slid into his hair and Sebastian gave an involuntary purr. "And I'm to believe that you have no demands of me touching that throbbing mass down there?"

The young human sounded incredulous and the demon's heart, if possible, sped up more. "W-would you? Please, please, please, it burns like nothing I've felt before." He pleaded.

"It _burns_ does it?" Sebastian knew what his contractor was implying but he was just as bewildered. By all accounts nothing should be able to burn him and yet… "You know, I've never willingly touched another man's prick." The demon stiffened at the hard tone used. "It is very much the last thing I want to do."

Sebastian felt himself emitting a sobbed whimper and could no longer find it within himself to feel pathetic. Only desperate.

"My Lord, I am no man, this you know. I am yours, body, mind and soul as long as this contract holds true. Every piece of me is your property down to each hair and all the fluids that make up this body. So please! It's not the same, it's no—aaahhh."

His Master had dragged his hand down from his chest to his belly and then lower. The touch, slowly, skirted his begging erection and swam over one hip, down and thigh and then slowly up the inside again. Blunt human nails raised his sensitivity to heights he didn't know possible. If all the world crashed around him, the demon could only know of his young Master's touch. The same touch lingered on his legs and just when he thought he might, after eons, finally expire, came and cupped his burning sack. The pleasure that spiked through him caused his body to jump sharply but a tersely ordered, "Be still, Sebastian." slammed him back down.

The hand was light, but sure. Explorative. It played with him as if he was some educational object and he, his Master, was completely unconcerned with the obscene amount of pleasure he caused. Most likely, only Sebastian's position as prone kept his Master Ciel from exploring his arse and for that Sebastian lamented his order to lie still. He knew, even surer that he could not voice such a desire, his little human simply wouldn't understand; the demon risked insulting or disgusting him, given his history. The boy huffed. "I really don't feel you've earned this."

The offhanded comment was given as the weight on the bed shifted and Ciel's other hand jerked Sebastian's face by the chin. "Look at me." He commanded and Sebastian opened his eyes immediately.

He expected to be overwhelmed and overcome with a sickly feeling but it wasn't so. The colors were still bright but there weren't that many with his charge's face so close. He was swallowed by hues of those eyes as they seemed to dive through the whole of his being. Ciel's cool touch finally landed softly upon the throbbing heat of his prick. Sebastian's breath hitched, he drooled unrepentantly and his lashes fluttered in sheer _pleasure_. "Masterrrrrrr." He purred once again. He wouldn't need much, not much at all before his orgasm would trigger; he could feel it gathering in his belly and balls.

"To whom do you belong, demon?" Sebastian's toes curled. He'd heard similar phrases of possession uttered through time both to him, and by him. But never had he been held so securely with nothing at all but will and words.

"Yooouuu." He purred back.

The hand's pressure increased on his sex and he gasped. Ciel spoke again. "Who?"

"You! You, my Master Ciel!" His tongue couldn't seem to stay still. It licked about his mouth, his teeth and chin and even darted down to his neck.

"Correct. And you know better than to take any actions without my knowledge and express permission. And now, for requesting such actions that you are clearly unworthy of, you may not even touch yourself here without my permission. Is that understood?" Sebastian froze. Even as inebriated by desperation as he was he understood the longevity of that command. Granted, he rarely felt the need to self-gratify, usually only on those rare Autumn nights, but to need permission first… "Did you not hear me, demon?" Ciel squeezed him harshly and Sebastian capitulated like a kicked dog.

"Yes! Yes my Lord!" He whined and panted and keened and Ciel pressed him again. And then again.

He gripped him fully, squeezed and pulled and muttered. "You are mine, Sebastian." Those intense eyes not wavering for a moment as a fourteen-year-old boy exerted his will over a creature infinitely more powerful than himself.

Sebastian's own eyes rolled back into his head, as his body seized and he came harder than he remembered in a VERY long time. He was unsurprised to feel its hot wetness land on his own face and heard the surprised squeak from the little human. On and on the pleasure raced up and down the nerves of his shell and cemented in memory, in the ethers of his mind. He fought to regain breath and contain his elation as his body began to cool; those awful stabbing pricklings finally subsiding. In return he felt very rare, heavy sort of exhaustion that dragged him toward unconsciousness. He became aware that he had been softly chanting his human's name. Not his tittle, but his name. "Ciel, Ciel, Ciel, Ciel." He chased the palm that was pulling away from his face.

The boy sighed, as he was wont to do. "Sleep Sebastian. When next you wake, you will have much to do to catch up on."

As much as the darkness pulled him he felt uneasy to slip away. "Master," He found the strength to whisper. "This sleep is deep. Please do not wander, I may not be able to hear you should you need me. Stay." He pleaded. He fought to open his eyes as he felt the boy do just the opposite.

"Be calm Sebastian. I need to … clean up and then I will return. I will sleep beside you and hopefully you will wake for the next day."

Sebastian had not even the energy to reply. His being was heavy with such mixed feelings of residual shock at his circumstances, shock at his behavior at his MASTER'S behavior. Anxiousness that this would irrevocably change things between them. A twinge of irritation at his weakness, at the circumstances, at the order that could no longer touch himself at the human's brazen and disrespectful behavior towards a being such as himself. And then awe. Awe that he had so summarily been put in his place, by a slip of a boy no less.

Usually, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey but this time he wondered … was it possible that there could be a human soul that was more than he could swallow?

Little did he know, in just a few months, his Master would find a way to shock him yet again.

He felt the bed dip beside him and what was once cool, was now an invitingly warm figure pressed against him. He felt that part of him that had held on finally release and he floated into blank, restorative blackness. The very last thing he registered was a huffy scoff.

"Stupid demon."

* * *

A/N: Just in case it wasn't obvious, this scene (Both Tale 007 part 1 and 2) happen BEFORE tale 006. Y'all gotta keep up. Lol, please let me know what you think!

Synne


	10. 010: The Demon is put into his Place

**Tale 010**

 **' The Demon is put into his Place '**

Just as Sebastian had felt his equilibrium return, just as he had felt he had regained his footing, just as he had internalized and accepted his Master's earth-shattering changes, _he was plunged right back into astonishment._

On this night, his Lord's group of underground colleagues were in attendance; some new faces, some old. His Master was still riding the high of their successful murder of the hateful Earl Charles Grey and had been both heinously and maliciously giddy all through the week. He'd 'oohed' and 'ahhhed' and lavished Sebastian with the attention the demon so rightfully deserved; and best of all! The burgeoning human had been more than a little coquettish; hinting at things yet fulfilled. Things the demon only dared to fantasize about in the depths of night for fear his Master would spitefully disengage.

Haughty as his Master was, the demon was even more so in a livened mood. This would be the inevitable cause for all that would happen that night.

Sebastian, for all his mind was a steel trap, could not recall, even if he wanted, what exactly it was that set his pretty little Master off. He'd been serving the guests drinks, as he often did, and a comment or two was made in the open forum. Sebastian had rejoined with some witty pith or other and the room had laughed.

"You think you're so clever, do you? Speaking out of turn like that."

The barely uttered statement was so frosty, the demon imagined he could see the ice crystals forming on everyone's stuck jaw. The room was so silent Sebastian swore several hearts had frozen just as well. The demon himself was left blinking in disorientation at his human owner's narrowed glare. Suddenly the cherubic face broke out into a nightmarish smirk.

"Mayhap you should be educated on what happens to the oh-so-clever. Come here." Sebastian, his otherworldly stomach in knots, wisely put down his tray holding crystal ware, and warily approached is unpredictable little human. Especially with that deceptively innocuous cane in one hand.

"My Lord?" He responded politely.

"Kneel." Ciel demanded softly.

Sebastian complied, more than a little shocked at how … _nervous_ he felt. Really! He should be ashamed; Ciel WAS still only human. What all could he do?

Ciel took a delicate sip of the whisky in his crystal low-ball glass. Such a grown-up drink for such a tiny grown up. "Did you have fun entertaining the others?" he asked sweetly.

Sebastian blinked "I …" He attempted to maneuver the landmines in that question. "…yes?" The demon was aghast at himself. Surly that was not the best response!

Ciel seemed to delight in Sebastian's floundering; if the light shudder and Cheshire grin was anything to go by. The demon began to realize that perhaps the tott had imbibed more than he realized. Just _who_ had been refilling his Master's glass behind his back!?

"Well-" The teen fairly sang out into the room " _I_ wasn't all that entertained. And just WHO should you prioritize entertaining hmm?"

Sebastian lowered his lashes demurely. "You, My Lord."

The boy's head lolled prettily as his gaze took on something decidedly more … predatory. "That's right servant, me. But maybe there are _other_ ways that you can entertain me, yes?" The walking tease licked hit top lip in a way that had Sebastian cursing the little hellion's immortal soul. The demon had spent long hours training himself not to picture his Master servicing him. Ever since that dreadful night when he had signed over what little rights to his own person he had left, and could not even gratify himself without the child's permission, he had promised NEVER to ask such permission. He had gone longer than a human lifespan without sexual gratification and he could do it again dammit!

Belatedly, Sebastian wondered if his Master was making sexual innuendoes in a room full of criminals purposefully or…The demon decided it was his Master's mess to deal with and thought nothing more of it.

Sebastian gave a silent sigh and lowered his head. "Whatever my Master wishes."

Ciel seemed to cackle at his butler's correct response. He leaned forward, his wrist a little loose and his glass tipped forward just enough. A slosh of brown whiskey hit his left shoe and slid down to the rich carpet. Ciel gave an entirely theatrical gasp. "Oops! Look at that mess. Here, "The boy crossed his left leg over his right and shoved his foot in Sebastian's face. "why don't you clean it off?"

The motion of his legs gave Sebastian a fresh waft of arousal that shouldn't have, but absolutely did, surprise him. This contract was going to give him heart failure. "M-My Lord?" The demon blinked. He wasn't actually averse to the command but this was just _so_ out of character for prim and proper little Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian was having a hard time reconciling this.

The boy giggled and took a gulp. The demon longed to snatch that liquor away. "I mean, it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?" He wiggled his foot across the frozen face of confusion. His arousal strengthened and his cheeks began to color; Sebastian's mouth began to water. "I mean you're my property just like this shoe, just like this liquor and this carpet. Aren't you Sebastian?" The boy was drawing out his words now in a decidedly indecent manner. The demon heard a cough or two and smelled quite a few shifts in scents.

"Yes, My Lord. Of course I am." With that Sebastian grasped the delicate foot by the heel and, using his long tongue, licked up the spilt liquor in one great swath. He then looked up to his Master once the task was complete.

The boy shook his head. "Uh-uh. I didn't say you were done. Keep going." The nefarious little troll put so much force behind that command Sebastian felt his body shiver and began to heat. The butler didn't question and leaned down once again to lick over the polished, black oxford shoe. "Tell me again, slave, who do you belong to?"

Sebastian wondered at his demotion, though the little brat was still technically correct. "You, My Lord." He continued his licking.

Sebastian felt a firm _whap_ on his lower back from the cane. "Who?" The boy asked with great force on the seal. Sebastian groaned at his awakened arousal. This was sure to end cruelly.

"Yours, Master Ciel."

The slate-haired human cackled and took a final swig from his whisky. "Repeat it!" He commanded.

And so Sebastian was forced to repeat a litany of 'I am yours, Master Ciel' and 'I belong to you Master Ciel' while licking the little demon's shoe and getting a firm rap on his back for his troubles.

"Enough." The shoe was removed from Sebastain's grip and before the demon could sigh of relief he watched his human's right leg make a surprisingly graceful arc before the foot was landing on his neck and forcing his head down into the soiled carpet. "You'll have to get that out before it stains." Was crowed once again. A firm swing from the cane to his arse nearly had Sebastian moaning. It took Ciel yelling at his guests for Sebastian to remember they were there. "You lot! Get the hell off my property; I have more important matters to tend to. Go on! Shoo!"

Sebastian from his bent position was unable to watch the hurried procession of humans as they scurried out but another solid swing had his attentions back to where they ought to be.

"I didn't say you could stop speaking, filth!" Another swing and this time, the demon couldn't help it, he moaned.

"I-" He had to clear his throat from the fresh wave of saliva. "I belong to you, Master Ciel."

"Yes, how much of you?" Ciel asked with another swing.

Sebastian felt heat burgeon on his face. "All of me." He sighed.

Ciel removed his foot from Sebastian's neck. "Sit up." He commanded. The demon complied. The human wasted no time harshly rubbing the heel of his right foot into Sebastian's tented crotch. The demon bit his lip to remain silent and still. "I figured filth like you would like this sort of treatment. And you are filth, aren't you demon?"

They were quite alone now, so Sebastian allowed himself to whine the tiniest bit. "Yes, My Lord. The worst kind."

"Indeed you are." Ciel swung his cane, hitting Sebastian's upper shoulder this time. It made little difference. "But you did well, following my commands. I suppose you feel you deserve a reward?"

Sebastian, both entirely surprised and entirely suspicious, batted his lashes and ducked his chin. "Yes please, Master Ciel."

"Hmmm?" Ciel used his cane to lift Sebastian's face. The demon observed the utterly intoxicated and slattern expression on the teen's face. "Well go on then," He moved his foot to under the demon's groin and gave a strong nudge to his nethers. "take it out."

Sebastian's breath hitched and he wasted no time quickly, and yet still cautiously, opening his pants. He paid careful attention to his little lord's face to be sure he wasn't negatively triggered. And yet, he could not escape the gratified groan at his final exposure; his human-like flesh seeming to further firm under his Master's intense gaze.

"You like this, don't you? Exposing yourself to me." Ciel declared. Sebastian wondered if he could get away with a slow nod as an answer. Ciel licked his sticky lips and the act alone had Sebastian's prick jumping and leaking onto his black wool trousers. The boy blinked in surprise and seemed to observe him critically. "And your ultimate agenda is to get this thing somehow inside of me?" He nudged the cock again with shoe, firmly pressing it against Sebastian's clothed stomach.

"M-My Lord I would never be so brazen to attempt—" Ciel struck him soundly in the mouth with his cane.

"You're damn right." The boy snarled and stuck him again. "I'll have you starve for all eternity should you ever. Know your place!" He was struck again in the face and his cock was pressed even harder.

"Y-Yes My Lord." Sebastian panted. The threat did not ring empty.

"Hmph." Suddenly Ciel withdrew his foot, crossing his legs once again. He twirled his cane. "I'm not going to keep this up all night. Do it yourself." The servant sighed as his stomach quivered and he bit off his gloves. He wished his Master would beat him again. It never used to be something Ciel could ever do effectively, for him to do so now made the act stimulating on _so_ many levels.

It almost felt too good to be touching himself, now that even that act was taken out of his autonomy. And yet most of his pleasure came from his equally disgusted and aroused Young Lord. The demon moaned as he gazed up through his lashes. He could feel his guise slipping just a bit, his pupils flashing and narrowing, his claws and teeth morphing. A low, throaty purr filled the room as he pulled and pulled at his prick. He panted at the unwavering stare of one eye. If he could somehow keep from destroying them, he would fuck those very eyes. Alas, such a wish was quite impossible, but that mouth. Those pouty, pink lips; still small and porcelain-like upon his cherubic face. Those he could fairly stuff his cock in until he burst.

Ciel sneered. "You get off on it, do you? Imagining using my mouth."

Sebastian blinked away his haze and attempted to lick up his drool. "Masterrrr," He groaned.

"Smarmy, fecking demon." He blindsided Sebastian with a blow right about the temple. The elder groaned with the pain. "As if you'd ever earn such a privilege as that!" He swung upon him again, this time striking Sebastian solidly on his shoulder. "You'd have to coax Christ to his second coming before I'd ever put my lips anywhere near your sodden prick!" Another blow and then another. "The nerve you have to even IMAGINE something so far beyond your reach!"

Sebastian panted, mouth more than a little bloody from his own run ins with his teeth, he pleaded. "Master, please, may I? May I please?" He shuddered at the power singing down his seal almost seeming to vibrate in his sternum.

The cane lifted his chin once more and he panted up at the boy's snarled, upturned lip. "Tch. Spill it."

The command was so absolute that Sebastian's body reacted separately from his mind. It was … honestly a bit disconcerting.

While Sebastian recovered from a shattering orgasm, his uniform utterly soiled, his contractor stood with a wobble, and let his heavy whisky glass hit the floor with a roll. He began to swagger out of the room and waved a hand backward at his servant. "Clean yourself up and then come put me to bed. I'm blasted tired and I'll be regretting this drinking come morning, dammit."

The boy was gone from the room right after and Sebastian was left satisfied but not really. And while he had thoroughly enjoyed being put in his place, the circumstances did not escape him.

This was yet another time he'd been denied his Master's body.

Sebastian's narrowed eyes and keen ears tracked his Master's drunken wobbling through the manor as the demon simmered in his passions. It wasn't his place to request such a thing, Ciel had made that abundantly obvious. And yet…

It was beginning to become an itch. Worse yet, a thirst.

A hunger.

Mostly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey but lately … he'd began to worry that it wasn't prey at all.


	11. 011 (1): Much for the Demon to Swallow

[A/N] This tale takes place directly after Tale 006.

* * *

 **Tale 011 [Part 1]**

' There's much for the Demon to Swallow '

Sebastian could still be considered in shock, when they were bidden to report to the crown that following day. His Master Ciel was in a right foul mood as his impending report of failure loomed evermore near. Such was his temperamental Master's dislike for failure, that his very frame trembled with his ire. On any other occasion, Sebastian would delight in such visceral outward shows of vexation, but the creature himself had not yet fully regained his faculties.

Why, just the night previous, after returning to the manor from their gruesomely failed mission, his Young Lord had ordered a striking command.

"Mount that right in my study where I can see it. It isn't every day a Son of Adam bests a hellion I imagine; and I do so love my trophies."

He spoke of the petrified head of his brethren that Ciel had bade him to carry home. And though Sebastian felt no real kinship or empathy for the slain demon, he did feel a bubbling sensation, looking at mounted face that was eerily similar to his own. It was not a … negative feeling, though that itself was a relative descriptor. This emotion reminded Sebastian a bit of a type of hysteria that he had dabbled in a time or two, though even that correlation didn't seem _quite_ right.

And now, as the butler sat across from his, thunderously expressed, young human, he attempted to self-diagnose just what was this _feeling_ nearly climbing out his throat!

"I should say," His Master began, somewhere between a hiss and a growl, just as their carriage pulled around the royal promenade of Buckingham Palace. "the very next moment you can get, where there would be absolutely no way to incriminate me, kill that sodden bastard Grey for the suffering he is sure to put me through."

Sebastian felt that sensation bubble stronger. His eyes narrowed in vicious glee. "Is that an order, My Lord?" He asked just to be clear. Snake pulled their carriage to a stop. Right outside, at the very top of the grand stairs was both Grey and Phipps in their pristine, white livery.

"For now, it is a suppositional tender. You may use your discretion, my dear knight piece."

Sebastian felt his insides quiver in delight, such was the malice wafting off his small Lord. To feel _needed_ , for his Lord to make such exact demands of him; that elusively named feeling inside the demon was swelling like a tide. "Yes, My Lord." He purred.

As usual, when visiting the Queen, the black clad creature could follow his Master but only so far; leaving his Master to receive, what was no doubt a dressing down, alone. Phipps, both vigilant and stoic, kept Sebastian company. The two servants were seated in a lounge too far from where the meeting was held for Sebastian to eavesdrop, so he kept time by counting the human's heartbeats and plotting ways to kill his colleague. When he at last could detect Ciel's unique gait, he stood at the ready. Before his Master even turned down the hall Sebastian could feel emotional pulses of power surging down his seal.

It was a peculiar thing now, his seal. Ever since the night of his illness, when Sebastian (a demon no less!) had called upon his human owner from his side of seal, the thing acted now as if its gates had been flung wide open. Strong emotions, intentions and energy was both sent and received, overall making this contract more intimate than any he had ever previously held. But lately, the breaking and forming of new records was becoming a commonplace thing for his Master Ciel Phantomhive.

The moment the door opened and Sebastian was able to set his eyes on his contractor, he was torn.

 _'KILL HIM'_ Ciel's entire countenance seemed to say, and Sebastian froze, unsure if he was hearing an order or simply interpreting emotions on his own. He paid such close attention to his human, that he missed all of what Grey was saying as he sauntered into the parlor.

 _'Should I simply kill him now?'_ Sebastian was hoping his expression was enough to convey his question. While he was mindful of the whole host of problems outright murdering the Queen's butler in Buckingham Palace could cause, it was not his place to question orders given, be they direct or not.

Ciel closed his eyes and took a deep breath, seeming to re-center himself. When he was calm, he spoke their goodbyes in no uncertain terms, spun on his heel and made his way to the exit posthaste. Sebastian followed closely. He didn't always forget about his Master's explosive temper, but the boy worked so hard to keep himself so tightly in control that it _did_ occasionally slip the demon's mind.

It didn't happen until they were well and truly outside of London, with no more witnesses than Snake and Sebastian themselves.

Ciel took one deep breath, then two, then he screamed his fury so piercingly it frightened the horses. Sebastian also winced. The teen contained himself just enough to be able to form words. "Kill him! You kill him, Sebastian, the first goddamn moment you can! Painfully! I want him to relive every moment he has gone out of his way to ruin me and by GOD I want to be there when you do it! The sodden, fecking, diabolically-hypocritical, lying, useless sack of human waste! I won't suffer another encounter with him if he isn't screaming in agony!"

Finally, the boy fell back into his seat to regain his breath; clothes awry, hair disheveled. He'd thrown his cane and hat to the floor of the carriage in his pique.

Calmly and carefully, Sebastian picked them both up before kneeling on the floor to fix his Master's appearance. "Fear not, my Lord. You need only voice your desire and I shall make it reality."

"It cannot be borne, Sebastian." He fairly whispered. His one eye was so alight with murderous rage it seemed as if his soul was heating up the atmosphere around them. "He had my Queen questioning me. Questioning my abilities and integrity. Questioning if whether it might be better for me to give up my title. Such a thing…" he seemed to fade into his own mind before his one visible eye snapped back to their attentive audience. "Such a thing cannot be borne."

"I understand." The demon continued to assuage his human with the gentle ministrations of fixing his clothes, and when he was done with that he petted the boy in the guise of fixing his hair. "Your most humble servant shall begin planning right away, My Lord. You need not suffer such disrespect for long. Do you trust me in this?" He asked. He had never asked before, and yet his essence heated in anticipation of the answer, in anticipation of hearing such affirmation.

Ciel's stare seemed to take the butler apart, it was long and made the demon's body heat. That, too, was a new sensation. "I trust you."

Sebastian felt his cheeks heating with blood. His mouth pulled slightly with … genuine pleasure. Everything felt so new, but he gave himself over to it. He was _happy_. He allowed his body to show it. He lifted his eyes back up to the solitary, unblinking stare of his owner. He had so many quips prepared to say;

 _'As you should, Master Ciel.'_

 _'I shall never fail you, My Lord.'_

 _'Your humble servant thanks you for your trust.'_

 _'Do not fret, it shall be done.'_

But as saliva pooled in his mouth, as he gave himself to his genuine pleasure, as he knew he was pulsing his excitement through their shared seal, all he could manage to say was, "Yes, My Lord."

* * *

[A/N] I'm trying to take Sebastian's character somewhere I've never really seen done before. It's tricky, but well worth the effort. Let me know what you think.

Synne


	12. 011 (2): The Demon does good Work

**[A/N]** Pay attention

* * *

Tale 011 [Part 2]

' The Demon does good Work '

It was surprisingly challenging, planning the murder of Earl Charles Grey. Most especially, as there were to be elements to the event that his Young Lord has specifically requested, and those _requests_ had to be accommodated.

It began to be the practice that the butler would set up the day, to where the household could potentially run itself for a few hours, and he would disappear to do reconnaissance. The Earl was an unsurprisingly suspicious man; however, what was surprising was how fragile his mind truly was. For humans, it would be a difficult thing to see, the fragility of another functioning human's mind. Thrice as hard if that human was as deadly with a rapier as was Grey. But for Sebastian, such fragility was easy to see in the hours Grey ran from sleep, in the arrhythmia of his heartbeats at loud sounds, at his suspicious nature toward anything he didn't explicitly handle himself.

The white-clad butler welcomed the night but hid from the boogeyman, he welcomed the dark but hated the shadows. He wasn't jumpy, per say, but he was paranoid, alert, distrustful, constantly. He trusted no one, not even his partner Phipps, with his own safety. And such constant stresses as fear and paranoia were the perfect recipe to break a human. Quite frankly, Grey was spiritually _exhausted,_ and that suited the demon just fine.

The next order of business was to make the arrangements fit in a snug enough manner with his Lord's schedule, as to create a perfect alibi. Obviously, the Queen was aware that something was a bit … off about the Phantomhive household, so plausible deniability would not be enough. Even a few witnesses wouldn't be enough. But Sebastian was an old and wily demon, and Sebastian had plans.

One afternoon, the butler entered his Master's study to serve tea. He paused, giving a shallow nod to the trophied head hanging upon the wall; it had begun to be a bit of a custom to him now, acknowledging his fallen brethren. He set the fine china down and allowed his pleasant buzz of excitement to pass through the seal. "My Lord, it will soon be time for your visit with Mr. Grey."

The boy, whom hadn't acknowledged Sebastian's entry at all, stiffened completely. Slowly, he set down his quilled pen and sat back to accept his tea. "You don't say." He murmured. The demon watched as the announcement slowly but surely stirred back up to the forefront, all of his Master's suppressed bloodlust. When the teen was fairly flushed from renewed anger and vibrating with anxious excitement, he breathed out, "When?"

The elder smiled serenely. "Soon. But first, My Lord, we have a very important trip to make." He placed two neat tickets on the large oak desk. "We are needed in France, Versailles, to be exact. Your factory there is undergoing a change in management and it is paramount you be there to inspect it, as well as give several speeches and fundraising galas for your philanthropies while there. You will have a very tight schedule."

Ciel stared at the tickets for a long moment before he resumed savoring his tea. "I see." He glanced up at his servant. "I'll assume we will be taking commercial travel?"

"Yes." Sebastian affirmed with a smile.

"Snake, Finny, Maylene and Bard?"

"As well as Soma and Agni."

Ciel exhaled in a long sigh.

"That's quite a large party."

"The better to witness for you, My Lord."

A sharp, amused, snort left the teen. He fluttered his lashes. "And where will _we_ be?"

A slow, primal, murderous smirk spread across the pale face of the butler. "Why, here of course."

Ciel attempted to hold it in, and was just barely able to set down his half-drunk tea before he burst into peals of laughter. His cheeks colored prettily and Sebastian drank him in with an enraptured, unblinking stare. When he had calmed, the boy jovially waved him closer. The servant skirted the desk quickly and knelt at his Master's side.

Ciel gave his last chuckles and then hummed pleasantly. He ran a thumb over the alabaster cheeks of his creature. "You please me, demon." He smiled, something carefree and pure though it absolutely did not fit the context, and turned Sebastian's face from one side to the other in inspection. "Yes," Ciel murmured lowly. "well worth the price."

"My Lord," He demon found himself speaking freely. "may I ask you a question?"

A slate colored brow rose. "You may."

"Why did –" He licked his lips and started again. "Why did you feed me, My Lord? That night, the essence of my brethren, why did you bade me to consume it?"

"It serves me best to have you well-fed, demon." The answer was quick and decisive. Really, the demon should have expected nothing else.

"To make me stronger? After you've expended so much energy on growing your own power, making yourself lethal to creatures like me?"

The younger seemed to understand the unsaid question immediately. "You are no threat to me, Sebastian. Not in any way that matters."

Sebastian blinked in stark confusion; it was certainly the very first time such had ever been said to him. He wondered if he should be insulted or elated, but was left just reeling in numbness.

And indeed, it did seem as if his Master's quest to empower himself was not challenged by Sebastian's growing power; the dauntless little mortal had fairly _forced_ his servant into peak condition. The butler wondered on his Master Ciel's motivations but alas, such was what made Ciel the King and Sebastian but the lowly Knight piece. He licked his lips. Constantly, Sebastian congratulated himself on his choice of prey.

Predator?

But that was a debate for another day.

"Tch." He was woken from his reverie by an amused huff from Ciel. "You're drooling again, demon. You've been doing that often lately." The end of that sentence had lilted up in a question.

Sebastian rose and procured his handkerchief. He could feel the slight flush to his face as well, but his Master had mercifully neglected to comment. "Ah, please excuse my unseemliness. It appears my saliva glands are a bit more honest than the rest of me." And _that_ was more honesty than he intended. Sebastian blinked. Good heavens, but he was a cross-wired mess right now!

"So it would seem." Ciel gave an even, if warm, response. "Well, I am pleased with your news, my dear Knight. I leave myself in your trusted hands and eagerly await our … appointment with Mr. Grey."

Sebastian felt that genuine pull to his mouth once again, and he bowed at the waist to lessen it's exposure. "My Lord, I humbly await, and look forward to your pleasures at my endeavor."

The announcement of a trip was met with its usual fanfair from the servants and the Indian acquaintances. The Lady Midford was most upset to have not been invited. When the timing was perfect, his Lord was engaged in a crowded, publicly cheered chess game with a local French Baron, Sebastian allowed his body to melt through space into his "den" back at the manor. He was not omniscient, and therefore there were rules to how he could travel, but for one of his caliber, such movement was childsplay. From there everything went according to plan and it was time to retrieve his Master for their fun.

That night, he bathed his Little Lord in an expensive French, clawed foot tub with hand-pressed, luxury soaps and shampoos. He took his time moisturizing delicate, petal-soft skin and took the time to neatly trim slate colored locks. His Lord giggled childishly and preened when he was set before a mirror, naked and glowing after such pampering.

"Am I to dress for the occasion?" He simpered, turning this way and that as if he wore a new, untried ensemble.

The demon bowed, his hellishly lit eyes never leaving the figure of his charge. "You are wearing the most exquisite clothing this world has to offer. I am sure our guest will be delighted at the thought put into his stay."

Ciel seemed to find this hilarious for quite some time. Sebastian purred.

"Well then," The young human chortled, when his mirth had finally calmed. "since I do plan to participate and there are to be no … _mementoes_ , this outfit will have to do, yes? Let us not keep him any longer, Sebastian."

With a wide, wicked and fanged smile the demon placed his marked hand over his prey's eyes and pushed them both through space. He was unsure if Ciel felt and adverse affects, but the boy was just as jaunt and chipper when they arrived is Sebastian's room. With a hum, Ciel looked around and then back to his butler. "Is he down in the dungeons?" It was a well-kept secret, the Phantomhive Manor dungeons.

"No no," Sebastian took a moment to retrieve his own wool coat and then wrap his slender human in it. He lifted the boy easily and began a leisurely stroll. "I thought that beneath the finery of our guest and have arranged much more dignified quarters."

"Oh? I am eager to see." And the teened boy did laugh jubilantly, with just a touch of madness, as they neared the private, stone mausoleum deep behind the manor. "How deliciously quaint!" Sebastian wondered if he had ever managed to make a contractor as happy as it seemed he had made Ciel most recently. He found he liked it, this feeling of … accomplishment.

By the time they entered to greet their very awake visitor, his charge was cheerfully flushed. "Grey!" He greeted as if welcoming an old friend. The gagged, white-clad butler, was forcefully seated in a comfortable armchair. There was a small fire keeping the enclosed structure warm, though there was no ventilation so their entrance brought necessary fresh air into the structure. Sebastian left the door open to set his wrapped charge in an opposite chair. "It seems your rooms are quite cosy indeed!" Ciel clapped his hands together inside the coat. "I must say! I have been most eagerly awaiting your stay with us. Really, after all the many times you have found it within your heart to _attend_ to me over these past few years, I am most honored and glad to finally be able to repay the favor."

Grey, whom had been wildly eyeing his surroundings since their entrance, snarled nastily but made no real attempt to communicate. He watched Ciel with a deep, true hatred that Sebastian was sure his ward hadn't earned. Yet.

"Sebastian tells me you are pretty well stacked for a human and I'm sure he's quite right. But he's an expert at cracking tough nuts and me…" Ciel stood, unceremoniously discarding the coat to show his naked form. Grey seemed confused, horrified and resigned nearly simultaneously. "me, I'm just here to learn."

The boy padded lightly over to the simmering fire to pick up a brand. His cherubic face smiled.

"Let's get started, shall we?"

* * *

 **[A/N]** This is the end of this tale, you may assume what you wish of it. Let me know what you think.


	13. 013: Demon finds a heart on his Sleeve

Tale 013

' The Demon finds a heart on his Sleeve '

Sebastian couldn't be bothered to remember how the argument had started.

"Really, Young Master, if I didn't know any better I would assume you were fishing for compliments."

The boy scoffed, purposely turning his head toward the windows as the two strode briskly down the Phantomhive halls. "I never have, nor shall I EVER lower myself to _fish_ for compliments _._ You cretin."

The boy sounded rightly offended and even though he was _refusing to look at him_ , Sebastian found it within himself to grin. Happily. "My Lord, I've yet to lie to you; whyever would you assume I should start doing so now?"

Ciel stopped abruptly and whirled on his butler. He pointed the baroqued head of his cane at Sebastian threateningly. "It is impossible, Sebastian. All the ages you've been alive and you mean to peddle this ridiculous notion that I'M the most attractive human you've ever encountered?"

The demon nodded sharply. "Tis true."

The teen stilled, mouth opening and closing in a wordless gape. Finally, his cheeks pinked so prettily and so rapidly that Sebastian imagined he could feel the heat of the blush himself. Without a word, the boy spun on his heels and fairly fled down the hall. It was a shame the demon kept pace without a bother.

"My Lord," Sebastian began in an amused simper. "I cannot imagine why you would doubt my word. It is as you have just said, I have eons of experience. I know beauty when I see it and am more than qualified to decide who or what is more beautiful than any other."

Ciel shook his head, the blush now spreading to his ears and neck. "I don't believe you."

The butler sighed. "You mean to be difficult. My poor Master, unable to come to terms with his own fairness. One would think it would be any human's greatest delight to be told they were, indeed, the fairest in the land."

"Because I'm not!" The younger exploded. They had just reached his study and yet instead of opening the grand wooden door he pressed his forehead to cool barrier in exasperation. The demon did not understand. "Sebastian, there is no way. I have—done things, had to do things, horrible—horribly disgusting things. I've become something—something my parents used to tell me scary stories of to frighten me. I am so _far_ from what is good and right and—"

"My Lord," The butler began. "forgive my interruption, but what of any of that has to do with how physically attractive you—"

"Because that IS beauty, demon!" Ciel finally turned to face him and Sebastian was appalled to find his little charge's eye was moist. No tears had fallen, but he was closer to them than Sebastian had expected capable with just an exchange of words. He shook his head, not understanding the logic. "Goodness, kindness, purity. _Love._ " The teen cut his arm through the air. "THAT is beauty! And for you, a creature mired in darkness and evil and cruelty to say you find _me_ the fairest…"

Ciel trailed off and looked away, his mouth pressed firmly and Sebastian remained inactive out of sheer confoundment.

"Every time I think I've come to terms with what I am. What I've given up and become, I always…" He was actively blinking back tears now and Sebastian followed his gaze to the large portrait of both his mother and father directly across from his study. It wasn't quite so long ago he had ordered it to be found and hung once again. The younger cleared his throat and started again. "I am always reminded that in the end I'm just a human, Sebastian. The lot of us are hideous." He turned back to his faithful butler, solitary eye seeming to look right through him. "And the exceptions… well they become the prey."

Then he was slamming the door in the butler's face and Sebastian was left to stand there and wonder.

 _Was his perception skewed because of what he existed as? Would Ciel be less beautiful to him if he were some different species? Not a demon?_

He had never before considered the matter. It plagued him for the remainder of the day. It wasn't until he was in the process of cooking, arms frozen above a pot of boiling water holding vegetables aloft, when something resurfaced. Images of Ciel buying oranges, candies, flowers, bread, needlessly from struggling little street urchins. Knowing that his one, small contribution would hardly help them if they were truly to perish. Was that not kindness, even if it was a useless gesture?

Sebastian's head tilted to one side as if the thoughts had actual weights.

But then there was Ciel choosing rather to burn alive the bodies of those children in the Noah's Circus case; an act of abandonment if there ever was. He had been so sure that they were soulless, though Sebastian _could_ have assured him otherwise. In all honesty, that was just Ciel electing to give them a quick death rather than a long one. Did that live up to his standards of beauty? Most likely not.

But wait!

Sebastian's head tilted to the other side.

There are plenty of times Ciel will send him to surreptitiously donate to orphanages in and around London. Or! All the times his Master would hold small scholarships for poor students through the use of different aliases. Surely that fit the bill of kindness and goodness; selfless and anti-publicity gestures. Did his Little Master never think of these occurrences? Did he not feel them worthy of discussion?

 _Did he think they didn't count?_

Sebastian couldn't say that, in this context, he could rightfully understand the human mindset. It was a contradictory frame set mostly by social and political climates of the times. He disliked how heavily mired his human charge was steeped into the society of his era, but he also realized that humans were not humans without other humans.

Truly it was a shame.

The butler scoffed in frustration. It would be more than a little difficult to get Ciel to see things his way. Because it mattered. It mattered to Sebastian that his disdainful little charge know how dominant his beauty was in comparison to all of his peers. It mattered to the demon that his human know he looked at none other, coveted none other, spent all the hours of his days enraptured by none other. What was the point of _feeling_ these things if he didn't get any bloody acknowledgement for them!?

 _To hell with suffering these emotions in silence! That brat of a human child WILL accept my passions as truths._

The butler went about finishing dinner, stewing in such riotous feelings he was sure some escaped through the seal.

As his Master dined, one hand wearily rubbing a temple, he squinted at Sebastian in exasperation. "What is it that you have been yelling at me all day?"

The demon assumed he meant the seal and wondered if it was the cause of what looked like an annoying headache. Good. He gave and arrogant sniff, his back ramrod straight and garnet eyes bored with irritation into the other's. "My apologies for the inconvenience they are causing, but I cannot help but be put out when my Master refuses to face my honest admissions of feelings. It was my conclusion that you would rather forthcoming behavior when it came to matters such as this. Should the Master like, I can certainly refrain from sharing such admittances again."

Ciel let his fork fall to clink rudely on his plate. He firmly set both elbows on the table and commenced to redoubling his efforts to rub out his headache. "Good God, Sebastian. You sure know how to put it on thick. We had a difference in opinions. I am not _dismissing_ your thoughts for bloody sake! I _know_ you don't like that."

Not having a snarky enough rejoinder, the demon elected to simply look away in a silent scoff. After a beat of silence where Ciel sighed and Sebastian seethed he spoke again. "It occurs to me that the Master does not properly appreciate what it was that I was conveying."

Ciel pulled off his eye-patch, seeming sure it was contributing to his pain and continued to look at Sebastian. "Sebastian, I heard what you said—"

"Not what was said, My Lord. What I was _conveying_."

Ciel quieted down, leaned back in his chair and seemed to sink into thought. It was times like this that Sebastian could not help but adore his Little Lord. Instead of despairing at the subliminal mysteriousness of the hellion's circuitous nature, he set about to conquer the unasked question in the air. And conquer them he would have to because Sebastian was not even sure what it was he himself was trying to express.

But the demon knew it was large. It was **important**.

For nearly forty minutes neither of them moved. The human blinked languidly and breathed regularly, but he had retreated deep within his mind. The other neither breathed nor blinked and simmered with frustration that even if it was for his sake, his human was _away from him._ Finally, Ciel roused and fluttered slate lashes, his doll like face tilting up to the demon. "Tell me, have you ever said such a thing as you said to me earlier, to any of your other contractors?"

"A few have asked me to rank their beauty amongst their peers and I have always been truthful."

"Have you ever thought, what you think about me now, about any other contractor?"

"Never."

There. There it was. With prettily mismatched eyes widening and luscious lips parting with surprise. "I see." They breathed out.

Sebastian found himself leaning closer. "Do you?" The doll nodded. "Imagine my surprise when my Master, the apple of my eye, currently my most important possession, takes my well-meaning admission and smears it with such negative implications. Why, I do say it would be enough to hurt even a demon's feelings."

Sebastian set about clearing the table, sure that dinner was over. Normally he would have introduced dessert, tea and coffee but he…didn't. It wasn't until he was pushing the filled cart into the kitchen that Ciel spoke again. "And did I?"

The butler turned back to his charge. "Did you what, My Lord?"

"Hurt your feelings?"

Sebastian internally winced, he did not want to answer that question. Instead he walked back to his Master's side and kneeled, removing the dinner napkin from his lap and straightening his clothes. "I will not, and cannot, judge you as a human, my Little Lord. So to me, you are the fairest of all mine eyes have ever laid witness to. It would … comfort me, if you would accept and celebrate this on its own merit."

The teen sighed. "All right." He leaned forward, softly touching his lips to the forehead of a very still butler. Sebastian was once again, a bit lost in newness of such a gesture. Ciel didn't spare him a moment to adjust. "Now put me to bed, demon; you've exhausted me this day. You can see to dinner clean-up afterwards."

Sebastian scooped the petite figure up and didn't bother to curtail his joy at the simple gesture. "Yes, My Lord."


End file.
